Lake · Bosnia and Herzegovina
Blidinje Lake
Blidinje Lake is the largest natural mountain lake in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It lies high on a rocky plateau, about 1 185 metres above the sea, in the middle of a nature park.
Picture credit: Martin Brož (CC BY 3.0) · Hienstorfer (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Blidinje Lake?
Countries on its shores: Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Middle of the lake: 43.61° N, 17.50° E
The story behind it
Blidinje Lake lies on a wide karst plateau between the towns of Tomislavgrad and Posušje. Karst is rock full of cracks and holes, where water often vanishes underground. The lake formed when glaciers melted away long ago. But at the end of the 19th century, local farmers who kept cattle helped it along: they plugged the holes in the ground with branches and clay, so that the water could no longer drain away. The lake is very shallow, on average only about half a metre deep and 3 metres at most. Its size changes a lot, from about 2.5 to 6 km². In winter it freezes, and people come for winter sports. Since 1995 the area has been a nature park, and more than 200 old medieval gravestones stand nearby. Bosnia and Herzegovina has bigger lakes, such as Buško Blato, but they were made by dams, so Blidinje counts as the largest natural mountain lake.
Find it on the globe
Blidinje Lake is there as a small blue dot with its name, right on the water. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How big is Blidinje Lake?
Blidinje Lake covers about 5.25 km², but its size changes between about 2.5 and 6 km². It is very shallow, at most about 3 metres deep.
How did Blidinje Lake form?
The lake formed when glaciers melted away. Later, at the end of the 19th century, farmers sealed holes in the ground with branches and clay, so the water stayed in the lake.
Is Blidinje Lake the largest lake in Bosnia and Herzegovina?
It is the largest natural mountain lake in the country. Bigger lakes, such as Buško Blato with about 56.7 km², were made by dams.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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