East Africa's Great Rift Valley is the world's longest rift, stretching a massive 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometres) from the Red Sea to the mouth of the Zambezi.
The rift was formed by shifting tectonic plates 30 million years ago, creating a dramatic landscape of towering escarpments, active volcanoes, forest-clad mountains and vast savannahs.
For millions of years, life has adapted to life within this geological corridor. Early human fossils, including Homo erectus and Australopithecus afarensis, have also been found in the area.
Today, its diverse habitats support an extraordinary abundance of wildlife, including lions, crocodiles, elephants, hippos and flamingos.
Many of Africa's great lakes owe their existence to the Rift Valley. Among them are Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi, while Lake Victoria lies between its eastern and western branches.
Lake Malawi is the world's third-deepest freshwater lake and is home to more than 500 species of fish, including the brilliantly-coloured cichlids.
The rift remains a hotbed of tectonic activity. Deep beneath the surface, parts of eastern Africa are slowly pulling away from the rest of the continent, creating the beginnings of a new ocean basin. The process is incredibly slow, however, and a fully separate landmass is not expected to emerge for 50 million years.
The most common mammal found in the Great Rift Valley is the rock hyrax, a rabbit-sized mammal that's genetically most closely related to elephants.
Although quite ordinary in appearance, rock hyrax have some remarkable attributes, including an adapted iris that allows them to gaze directly into bright sunlight without being blinded, and rubbery pads on the soles of their feet that secrete moisture to act like suction cups.
Owing to its lineage with elephants, rock hyrax also have vampire-like miniature tusks.
Great Rift Valley wildlife
