Étang Saumâtre

Where is Étang Saumâtre?

Countries on its shores: Haiti, the Dominican Republic.

Largest lake of: Haiti.

Middle of the lake: 18.58° N, 72.00° W

The story behind it

Étang Saumâtre is French for “brackish pond”. Brackish water is a mix of salt water and fresh water: this lake is about one fifth as salty as the sea. It lies in the Cul-de-Sac Plain, about 25 to 30 km east of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. The lake is about 22 km long and up to 30 m deep. No river flows out of it; its water comes from springs and small streams. Almost all of the lake belongs to Haiti, and its eastern side runs along the border with the Dominican Republic. It is Haiti's largest lake. Books give its size as between about 140 and 170 km², because the water level changes. In recent years it has risen, and some families living on the shore had to move to higher ground. More than 100 kinds of water birds live here, including American flamingos. Rare American crocodiles and rhinoceros iguanas live around the lake too.

Find it on the globe

Étang Saumâtre 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.