Lake Balaton

Where is Lake Balaton?

Countries on its shores: Hungary.

Largest lake of: Hungary.

Middle of the lake: 46.85° N, 17.72° E

The story behind it

Lake Balaton is about 78 km long, but on average it is only about 3 m deep. In German it is called the Plattensee. Its name probably comes from an old Slavic word for “mud” or “swamp”, and the Romans called it Pelso. It is Hungary's largest lake. Its area is usually given as about 600 km², but it changes a little with the water level. The Zala River brings in the most water, and the Sió, a river turned into a canal, is the only way out. In the middle, the Tihany Peninsula pokes far into the lake, so the water there is only about 1.3 km wide. In a normal winter the lake freezes from late December until late February, and people go skating and ice fishing. About 50 kinds of fish live in the lake. The most famous is the pikeperch, the “king of Balaton”. Towns like Siófok, Balatonfüred and Keszthely are busy holiday resorts.

Find it on the globe

Lake Balaton 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.