Lac de Guiers

Where is Lac de Guiers?

Countries on its shores: the Senegal.

Largest lake of: the Senegal.

Middle of the lake: 16.25° N, 15.83° W

The story behind it

The Lac de Guiers is long and narrow: about 35 kilometres long and 8 kilometres wide. But it is very shallow – on average the water is only 1.3 metres deep. In the rainy season, the Ferlo River brings water into the lake from the south. In the north, the lake is linked to the great Senegal River by a canal. In 1916, people built a dam so that salty water could not flow into the lake. The lake is very important for people. Underground pipes carry its fresh water hundreds of kilometres to Dakar. Along the northern shore, large fields of sugar cane are watered with water from the lake. Many birds visit the lake, such as lesser flamingos, glossy ibises and spoonbills. Long ago, the town of N'Der stood on the western shore. It was the last capital of the old Kingdom of Waalo.

Find it on the globe

Lac de Guiers 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.