Hamun Lake

Where is Hamun Lake?

Countries on its shores: Afghanistan, Iran.

Largest lake of: Afghanistan.

Middle of the lake: 30.83° N, 61.67° E

The story behind it

Hamun Lake lies in a wide, flat desert basin called Sistan. Most of its water comes from the Helmand River, which flows down from the mountains of Afghanistan. The word hamun means a shallow lake in the desert, and here there are three of them: Hamun-e Puzak, Hamun-e Saberi and Hamun-e Helmand. In times of flood they join into one lake of up to about 5 700 km², so its size changes a lot from year to year. About a third of it lies in Afghanistan, and it counts as Afghanistan's largest lake. People here made long boats from reeds to glide over the shallow water. A rocky hill called Mount Khajeh rises from the lake bed. Between 1999 and 2001 a long drought dried the lake up completely, and the birds and the fishing disappeared. In good years it is an important winter home for water birds.

Find it on the globe

Hamun 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.