Lake Biwa

Where is Lake Biwa?

Countries on its shores: Japan.

Largest lake of: Japan.

Middle of the lake: 35.26° N, 136.08° E

The story behind it

Lake Biwa lies in Shiga Prefecture, in the west of central Honshu, Japan's main island. Its name comes from the biwa, a Japanese stringed instrument similar to a lute, because the lake has a similar shape. It is about 63 km long, up to 104 m deep and covers about 670 km², which makes it Japan's largest lake. Because the lake is so old, many living things have developed here that exist nowhere else – about 60 of them, such as the Biwa catfish and the Biwa trout. People around the lake make an old dish called funazushi: fish pickled in salt for more than two years. The lake gives water to about 15 million people. In the 1890s, the Lake Biwa Canal was built to bring its water to Kyoto. About 450 people live on the island of Okishima. The water flows out of the lake through the Seta River.

Find it on the globe

Lake Biwa 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.