Lake R'Kiz

Where is Lake R'Kiz?

Countries on its shores: Mauritania.

Largest lake of: Mauritania.

Middle of the lake: 16.87° N, 15.28° W

The story behind it

Lake R'Kiz lies in a long, narrow hollow in the dry south of Mauritania, about 34 km long. In the rainy season the Senegal River rises and pushes water into the hollow, and a little more flows in from the land around it. Then the lake can become up to 9 km wide and about 4 metres deep. In dry times it shrinks again. People have built a dam and a dyke to control the water, so that rice can be grown here, and today the lake often fills less than it used to – some counts give only about 61 km². Reeds grow along the shore, and otters, mongooses and slender-snouted crocodiles live here. Tens of thousands of water birds, such as ducks and black-tailed godwits, visit the lake. Even so, when it is full, no other lake in Mauritania is as big.

Find it on the globe

Lake R'Kiz 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.