Lake · United States
Iliamna Lake
Iliamna Lake is the largest lake in Alaska, in the United States. Young red salmon grow up in it, and it is one of the few lakes in the world where seals live.
Picture credit: Dev Dharm Khalsa / NPS (Public domain) · Dev Dharm Khalsa / NPS (Public domain) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Iliamna Lake?
Countries on its shores: the United States.
Middle of the lake: 59.54° N, 155.02° W
The story behind it
Iliamna Lake lies in the south-west of Alaska, only 14 m above sea level. It is 124 km long, up to 35 km wide and up to 301 m deep. It is the largest lake in Alaska and the seventh-largest lake in the United States. Its water flows out through the Kvichak River. Every year huge numbers of salmon swim up the river, and their young, the red salmon (also called sockeye salmon), grow up in the lake. This is the biggest red salmon run in the world. Rainbow trout and grayling live here too. Even more surprising are the seals: Iliamna Lake is one of the few places on Earth where seals live in fresh water. Small villages such as Iliamna, Newhalen, Kokhanok and Pedro Bay lie on the shore. Some people tell stories about a mysterious lake monster. Others think it might just be a very big fish.
Find it on the globe
Iliamna 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 Iliamna Lake?
Iliamna Lake covers about 2 622 km². It is 124 km long and up to 301 m deep, which makes it the largest lake in Alaska.
Do seals really live in Iliamna Lake?
Yes. Iliamna Lake has one of the few groups of seals in the world that live in fresh water instead of the sea.
Is there a monster in Iliamna Lake?
People tell stories about the “Iliamna Lake Monster”, but nobody knows for sure what they saw. Some think it could be a large fish such as a sturgeon or a shark.
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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