Size of Queen Elizabeth National Park
Size of Queen Elizabeth national park is half that of Murchison falls national park of the northern region of Uganda making it the 2nd largest park in the country. The park occupies an area of 1978 square kilometres in the parts of rolling hills and plains in the East of Lake Edward and runs through the foothills of the popular Mountain Rwenzori rangers commonly known as the mountains of the moon to the Ishasha border in the south. Queen Elizabeth national park is one of the most visited national parks on Uganda which is surrounded by several districts of Kasese, Kabarole, Rubiriizi, Rukunguri, and Kanungu.
Queen Elizabeth National Park is positioned in the south-western region of Uganda in kasese district and it is protected by Uganda wildlife Authority a body that governs all the national parks of Uganda and has been on the list of world heritage sites since 1991. The park covers a total geographical size of about 1978 square kilometres which is habitant to several species such as the wildlife species, famous water bodies like Kazinga channel that connects to Lake Edward to Lake George, Lake katwe, over 600 bird species, 95 mammal species include the tree-climbing lions, Elephants, Buffaloes, Leopards, waterbucks, warthogs , Uganda kobs, duikers, primates like endangered chimpanzees, black and white colobus monkeys, Red tailed monkeys, among others, vegetation, swamps and many more. The park is also adjacent to the Democratic Republic of Congo in the west and above all the western part of Queen Elizabeth national park is marked with a number of volcanic craters that were formed in those ancient years during the Pleistocene epoch time for over 26 million years to 11700 years ago.
The size of Queen Elizabeth National park makes it beautiful since it covers landmarks like the equator line monuments on both two sides showing the 00 latitudes. The park was established in 1952 as Kazinga National park and later after 2 years, it was commemorated by the visit of Queen Elizabeth 11 and it became to be renamed Queen Elizabeth national park.
Special attractions in Queen
The kazinga Channel measures 40 kilometres long and it is water source area that connects with Lake Edward to Lake George, this is the section of the park where you can have great view of large wildlife species most especially the hippos and since it is the source of the water bodies in the park many mammals are seen linking for water mostly during dry season and it is a place of bird paradise that stay around this space such as the rare shoe bill stork, greater flamingos, king fishers among others.
The Kyambura Gorge is also a famous feature that sits on the grounds of Queen Elizabeth National Park and one of the most visited parts inside the park which is a home of endangered habituated Chimpanzees. The gorge is covered with the water source that flows in Chambura River flowing through the western rift valley and connects to kazinga channel which drains to lake Edward in the west. The best-enjoyed activities around here are the chimpanzee tracking, guided nature walks as well as viewing butterflies and notable bird species in the rain forest of kyambura.
However, the park covers with amazing tourist attractions such as the western rift valley that covers about 2500 square kilometres known as Kyambura Game Reserve and Kigezi wildlife reserve. The water source dominated within Queen Elizabeth national park space covers about 250 kilometres of lakeshores and the lakes include; Lake Edward, Lake George, kazinga channels, River Ishasha and Kyambura River and many more. These several crater water bodies provide with a panoramic view of wildlife to travellers since they are habitats for mammals and birds species.
The size of Queen Elizabeth National Pak includes the Ishasha sector which raises 100 kilometres and is positioned in the south of Mweya peninsula. The Ishasha Sector is an open grassland which boasts with unique tree-climbing lions also known as the cactus climbing lions and it is also famously known because of being a special area for endangered birds i.e. the shoe bill stork.
The Maramagambo forest is also another forest found within the great size of Queen Elizabeth National Park that stretches from the eastern rift valley escarpment and it inhabits a wide range of wildlife. The main activities done along here are the nature walk through visiting lake Nyamasingiri, hiking along the dark forest, visit the bat caves and see how bats are hanging on the cave and the big pythons inside the cave.
In general, the size of Queen Elizabeth National park covers a geographic area of about 1978 square kilometres and is the 2nd largest national park in Uganda which is the most visited park on Uganda safari Tours. The park harbours with variety of wildlife species, volcanic crater lake, vegetation among others and besides that it also offers beautiful accommodation facilities located inside the park to serve or to cater for tourists and it is approximately 5 to 6 hours by road from Uganda capital city ‘’Kampala ‘’ to Queen and another option you can fly from Entebbe Airport using a charter schedule flight taking 1:15 hours to land at Mweya Airstrip.
