Top 10 Volcanoes in the East African Rift
The East African Rift is the largest continental rift on Earth. It runs from the Afar triple junction in Ethiopia south through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi and into Mozambique — and everywhere it goes, it carries volcanoes. Some erupt, most cradle soda lakes, all of them mark the slow tearing of a continent in two.
1. Nyiragongo (DR Congo)
A 3,470-m stratovolcano with a near-permanent lava lake — one of the world's few. The 2021 eruption sent fluid lava through the streets of Goma. Visited under tight security from the Virunga National Park.
2. Nyamuragira (DR Congo)
Nyiragongo's larger but less famous neighbour, the most active volcano in Africa, with frequent fissure eruptions. Together they sit at the junction of two rift segments.
3. Erta Ale (Ethiopia)
The "smoking mountain" of the Afar depression, with a long-lived lava lake in its summit pit. Reached on multi-day desert expeditions.
4. Ol Doinyo Lengai (Tanzania)
The "Mountain of God" — the only active volcano on Earth producing natrocarbonatite lava. Climbed at night to avoid the heat. A spiritual centre for the Maasai.
5. Kilimanjaro (Tanzania)
Africa's tallest mountain (5,895 m) and a dormant stratovolcano. Glaciers clinging to the summit are now in retreat. The most climbed major volcano in Africa.
6. Mount Kenya (Kenya)
An extinct stratovolcano eroded to its hard core, 5,199 m at Batian. Glaciated even on the equator. The country's namesake mountain.
7. Karthala (Comoros)
A 2,361-m active shield volcano on Grande Comore island, off the eastern coast of Africa, frequently in eruption. The summit caldera is enormous; the shield reaches the sea on all sides.
8. Mount Meru (Tanzania)
A 4,566-m stratovolcano west of Kilimanjaro with a giant horseshoe crater open to the east — the scar of a flank collapse around 8,000 years ago.
9. Rungwe (Tanzania)
The dominant volcano of the Mbeya highlands in the southern rift segment. Last eruption around 1800; the surrounding tea plantations grow on its soils.
10. Mount Elgon (Uganda / Kenya)
A 4,321-m extinct shield volcano on the Uganda-Kenya border. Its 40-km-wide summit caldera is the largest in Africa. Climbed in several-day trips from Sipi Falls or Mount Elgon National Park.
How the rift carries volcanoes
The rift is splitting Africa into the Nubian (west) and Somalian (east) plates. Thinning crust lets mantle melt rise to the surface, producing basaltic volcanism (Nyamuragira, Erta Ale) where the rift is mature and silicic or carbonatitic chemistry where the system is younger or unusual (Lengai). Some centres (Kilimanjaro) sit on older lineaments.
Safety and access
The DR Congo volcanoes require specialist guides and current security information. Ethiopian Afar volcanoes are visited with permits. The Kenya-Tanzania-Uganda peaks are climbed via national park systems with guides. Always check current advisories.
On the map
Open the map and filter to East Africa to see the rift trace itself out as a line of volcanoes — Afar to Mozambique, three plates slowly separating along it.