Place · lake

Lake Chad

Lake Chad is a large, shallow lake in the central Sahel, bordered today by Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria. Its basin was the heartland of the Kanem-Bornu Empire, whose economy depended on its resources and on trade routes across the Sahara. The lake region also linked the Sokoto Caliphate and the Wadai Empire to wider networks of commerce and conflict.

Lake Chad
Image: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 6 profiles

Kanem-Bornu EmpireFoundation, Socioeconomy, Impact, SummarySokoto CaliphateSocioeconomyWadai EmpireImpactHafsid SultanateSocioeconomy, SummaryHausa kingdomsImpact, SummaryFrench West AfricaSocioeconomy

Mentioned in 8 state histories

Banu Khattab emirateDaju kingdomBulala SultanateKotoko kingdomsKingdom of BaguirmiSenussi OrderKamerunBorno Emirate

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Lake Chad. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lake-chad
MLA
“Lake Chad.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lake-chad. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Lake Chad.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lake-chad.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Lake Chad’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/lake-chad (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻