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THE WONDERS OF AFRICA'S GREAT RIFT VALLEY REVEALED, THIS MONTH ON ANIMAL PLANET

Visible from space, Africa's Great Rift Valley runs 3,000 miles from the Red Sea to the mouth of the Zambezi. This month, Animal Planet's THE GREAT RIFT takes you on a breathtaking journey to explore its incredible array of wildlife and the people who inhabit one of the world's most diverse landscapes.

The Great Rift Valley is a composition of various terrains from erupting volcanoes, forest-clad mountains and spectacular valleys, to rolling grasslands, huge lakes and mighty rivers. It is home to a myriad species of wildlife including crocodiles, hippos, lions, elephants, and flocks of flamingos, and various tribes of indigenous peoples. From animal havens to natural soda lakes, Animal Planet's THE GREAT RIFT delves into the heart of this valley and discovers what makes it such an amazing geographical phenomenon. Using state-of-the-art high definition filming techniques, THE GREAT RIFT also reveals the mighty geological forces that have shaped this unique landscape.

Mount Kilimanjaro and the Ngorongoro crater, Lake Nakuru and Lake Natron, Mount Meru and Mount Kenya are familiar names around the world - places which millions of people think of as the embodiment of Africa. Indeed, the world's visions of Africa's wilderness can be conjured with a single word: Serengeti. In the first episode The Animal Kingdom, be awed by the sheer numbers of the greatest remaining concentration of wild game in Africa, and witness the annual phenomenon where millions migrate en mass across the plains of Tanzania.

The volcanic chains of the Eastern and Western Rift Valley are hardly 300 miles apart yet they are as different as day and night - and the difference is water. In the East where water is rare, the lakes are flat and salty; in the West, there are rainforests and the world's longest lake - Lake Tanganyika. Soda Lakes and Inland Seas explores the bodies of water that are found in this unique landscape - from the chain of lakes on the bottom of the Western Great Rift Valley to Lake Tanganyika.

In the third and final episode From Hell to the Holy Land, we travel from the Northern Rift Valley which stretches from Ethiopia across the Red Sea to the Jordan River valley. It is the rift's wildest corner in every sense - empty of people, extremely hot, and volcanically active. In the Afar Triangle, shared by Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti, three continental plates collide. Below the Earth's surface, all hell breaks loose when the volcanic landscape spews sulfur, steam and reinvents itself everyday.

Discover the natural wonders of THE GREAT RIFT, this month on Animal Planet.

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