Yatta Plateau

The Yatta Plateau is the long flat-topped ridge that forms the western skyline of Tsavo East National Park. Kenya Wildlife Service describes it on its own park page as the world’s longest lava flow. It runs roughly 290 kilometres from Ol Doinyo Sabuk, north-east of Nairobi, down the line of the Athi River, and for most of a day’s driving in Tsavo East it is simply there on the horizon, level and unbroken.

How a Lava Flow Becomes a Plateau

The Yatta is phonolite, an alkaline lava that erupted from the Ol Doinyo Sabuk area in the middle Miocene, and its length is a product of how it travelled. Rather than spreading out across open country, the lava ran down an existing river valley, confined by the valley walls, which kept it moving and kept it thick. Geologists have used it as a case study precisely because very long channelled flows are hard to model.

What happened afterwards is what makes it visible today. The solidified lava was far more resistant than the softer sedimentary rock around it, so as the landscape eroded over the following millions of years, the valley fill was left standing while the ground on either side was stripped away. The old river bottom became a ridge. It now rises some way above the plain, and the Athi River runs beside it rather than on top of it.

That inversion is the interesting thing to carry away from the view. The flat top of the Yatta is the floor of a valley that existed before the Miocene lava, preserved upside down in the modern landscape.

Seeing the Yatta Plateau from Tsavo East

The plateau runs along the park’s western boundary above the Athi, which means it is visible from a great deal of the northern and central park rather than being a stop on a circuit. There is no car park and no viewpoint. It is scenery, and it works as scenery:

The unbroken level line across the horizon is unusual and it reads immediately in photographs, particularly in the low light at either end of the day.
It is the reference point guides and ranger patrols orient by in a park that is otherwise short of landmarks.
From the higher ground at Chaimu Crater in Tsavo West, across the highway, the Yatta is visible on the far side, which gives a sense of how the two halves of Tsavo sit in one landscape.
Drives along the Athi and up towards Lugard Falls keep it in view for hours.

Because the flow tracks the river, the strip of ground between the plateau and the Athi is one of the more productive parts of the park for game in the dry season, so a drive positioned for the view is usually also a drive positioned for animals.

What the Yatta Is Not

It is worth being clear about the scale of what a visitor actually experiences, because the numbers attached to the Yatta invite disappointment. The 290 kilometres is the length of the whole lava flow from Ol Doinyo Sabuk, most of which lies far outside the national park in Machakos and Kitui country. What you see in Tsavo East is a section of it.

It is also not a climb or a walk. The plateau is not an attraction with access; it is a landform seen from below. Anyone expecting to drive up onto it inside the park will be looking for a road that is not there.

Yatta Plateau Questions

Is the Yatta Plateau really the longest lava flow in the world?

That is how Kenya Wildlife Service describes it on its Tsavo East page, and it is the standard claim in the geological literature on long channelled flows. Its length is given as about 290 kilometres.

How old is it?

The flow is dated to the middle Miocene, so many millions of years old, and it is not connected to the recent volcanism in the Chyulu Hills that produced the Shetani Lava Flow across in Tsavo West. Those two lava fields are separated by a very long stretch of geological time.

Can you drive or walk on top of it?

Not as part of a Tsavo East visit. Within the park it is a skyline feature on the far side of the Athi River, not a destination with a track up it.

Where is the best place to see it?

Anywhere on the drives that follow the Athi River up the western side of the park, and from the higher ground in the north. Early and late light picks out the edge of the plateau far better than the middle of the day.

Where does it start?

At Ol Doinyo Sabuk, the mountain north-east of Nairobi that supplied the lava. The flow then runs south-east along the line of the Athi, which is why it arrives at Tsavo East at all.

Yatta in Context

Tsavo East is a park people describe as flat and featureless, and the Yatta is the argument against that. It is the largest single thing in the landscape, it explains where the Athi River goes, and it is the geological counterweight to the young volcanic country in the western half of Tsavo. Fees, gates, seasons and access belong to the Tsavo East guide, and the index of named sights across Kenya sits on the Kenya attractions hub.

3 Places to Visit in This Area

Other sites in Tsavo East National Park Safari Guide, each with its own guide.

Aruba Dam Lugard Falls Mudanda Rock

Safaris That Visit Tsavo East National Park

3 of the 4 safaris listed here that visit Tsavo East National Park, from different operators where the listings allow it. Each is sold and run by an independent tour company. This site lists them and passes on enquiries; it takes no booking and charges you nothing.

Great Migration