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Lake Rwihinda

lake in Kirundo Province, Burundi

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ21332817 ↗
Source-derived summary

Lake Rwihinda (French: Lac Rwihinda, 2°32′22″S 30°03′15″E), also known as the Lac aux Oiseaux (Bird Lake) is a lake in the Kirundo Province of Burundi.

It is home to diverse migratory birds, which are the main tourist attraction in the region. However, despite being protected, it is under threat from encroaching agriculture in this very poor region.

Location

Lake Rwihinda is in the Commune of Kirundo, to the north of the provincial capital of Kirundo.

It covers 425 hectares (1,050 acres) and is 1,420 metres (4,660 ft) above sea level.

Mutawenzi and the Mutawenzi Military Camp are just south of the lake.

The Kirundo Airport and the settlement of Rutare are to the northeast.

A marshy strip leads northwest to the Akanyaru River.

Lake Narungazi and Lake Gitamo also drain into this marshy strip.

If the cyperus papyrus swamp in the Nyavyamo valley downstream of the lake were drained, the lake would empty out into the Akanyaru River.

Editorial summary

“Lake Rwihinda” enters the record as lake in Kirundo Province, Burundi. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Lake, Rwihinda and lake can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA strong orientation record where physical form, institutional use and historical geography need to be read together. The current 158-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Lake, Rwihinda and lake.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Lake Rwihinda” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Lake, Rwihinda and lake provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q21332817. Authority coordinates are -2.549, 30.078. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

Critical limits

Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Lake Rwihinda”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Lake Rwihinda primary sources, Lake Rwihinda archive and Lake research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Lake Rwihinda”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Lake Rwihinda” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.