Located in eastern Africa, Lake Victoria is Africa’s largest lake, with a surface area of approximately 27,000 square miles (70,000 square kilometers). It is also the world’s second-largest freshwater lake, after Lake Superior. Lake Victoria is bordered by Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. The lake was named by British explorer John Hanning Speke, the first European to see the lake (in 1858), in honor of the reigning British queen.