Bueng Boraphet

Where is Bueng Boraphet?

Countries on its shores: Thailand.

Middle of the lake: 15.68° N, 100.25° E

The story behind it

Bueng Boraphet lies south of the Nan River, close to the place where the Nan and the Ping meet to form the Chao Phraya River. People flooded the old swamp in 1930 to make fishing better. Today the lake covers about 224 square kilometres, although one source gives a little less, and it is called the largest freshwater wetland in Thailand. There are two islands in the lake. In winter, many water birds fly here from far away. Bueng Boraphet was the only place on Earth where a small bird called the white-eyed river martin was known to spend the winter, but nobody has seen one since 1980. There are happy discoveries too: in December 2019 bird-watchers found a marsh grassbird here, the first ever seen in Thailand. Since 1975, hunting has been forbidden on 106 square kilometres of the lake. Because a dam made the lake, it counts as a reservoir.

Find it on the globe

Bueng Boraphet 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.