Home to the Mountain Gorillas, Rwanda is a small landlocked republic in Equatorial Africa. It lies on the eastern rim of the Albertine Rift, a western arm of the Great Rift Valley, and the watershed between Africa’s two largest river systems: the Nile and the Congo. Much of the country’s 26,338km2 is dramatically mountainous, the highest peak being Karisimbi (4,507m), part of the volcanic Virunga chain in the northwest. Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa, and heavily cultivated, with even the steepest hills outside of conservation areas being tightly terraced from base to peak. The largest body of water is Lake Kivu in the Albertine Rift. Numerous other lakes are dotted around the country, notably Burera, Ruhondo, Muhazi and Mugasera, all of which have erratic shapes following the contours of the steep mountains, which enclose them. The country is dominated by a central plateau made up of steep mountains and deep valleys and has therefore received his subtitle "Land of thousand hills". The average elevation of the plateau is about 1.700 m.