Lake Nakuru is located in the Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya and is considered a unique natural spectacle worldwide. The up to four meter deep lake, one of the alkaline soda lakes in the eastern East African Rift Valley, is world famous for its numerous flamingos. At times up to two million flamingos feed on blue-green algae (Spirulina) or small crustaceans, which give the white animals their pink colour. Already from a distance, one can recognize a pink band that usually runs around the whole lake at the lakeside. If there is a lack of food, the flamingos move to one of the other soda lakes such as Lake Bogoria or Lake Elmentea.
The lake has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2011 as part of the "Kenyan Lake System in the Great Rift Valley".
The lake is located in the eastern part of the Great Rift Valley. The lake basin is bordered in the north by the Menengai Caldera, in the south by the volcano Mt. Eburru, in the west by the ditch edge of the Mau Escarpment and in the east by the Kinangop Plateau and the Aberdare Volcano Complex (Aberdare Range). The 1800 km² catchment area is low in rainfall, which is why the hydrological budget of the basin is extremely negative and the lake is strongly alkaline.
The lake is completely located in Nakuru County in Kenya, about 140 km northwest of the capital Nairobi.
On the northern shore of the lake lies the city of Nakuru, with about 300,000 inhabitants (2000) the fourth largest city in Kenya.