Deransko Lake

Where is Deransko Lake?

Countries on its shores: Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Largest lake of: Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Middle of the lake: 43.05° N, 17.80° E

The story behind it

Deransko Lake lies in Hutovo Blato, a big marshy nature park on the left side of the Neretva River, east of Gabela. It is the largest natural lake in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The lake covers about 3.7 km² and is about 3.3 km long, but on average it is only about 2 metres deep. Its size changes with the rain, and in summer large parts of it turn into marsh. Water from the Trebišnjica River flows underground through the rocks and bubbles up from springs in the hills to fill the lake. Strangely, the bottom of the lake lies below the level of the sea! The Krupa River flows out of the lake to the Neretva, and sometimes it even flows backwards. More than 160 kinds of birds live in the park, such as herons, egrets and wild ducks, and the water is home to fish like carp and eels.

Find it on the globe

Deransko 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.