Lake Bosumtwi

Where is Lake Bosumtwi?

Countries on its shores: Ghana.

Largest lake of: Ghana.

Middle of the lake: 6.51° N, 1.41° W

The story behind it

Lake Bosumtwi lies in the Ashanti Region, about 30 km south-east of the city of Kumasi. Its crater is 10.5 km wide, and the lake inside is about 8 km across and about 80 metres deep. Steep crater walls rise all around, and small streams run down them into the lake. No river flows out, so the water can only leave by evaporating or seeping into the ground. About 30 villages lie near the lake. For the Ashanti people it is sacred: they believe that the souls of the dead come here to say goodbye to the goddess Asase Ya. That is why fishing on the lake is only allowed from simple wooden planks. Eleven kinds of fish live in the water, and some are found nowhere else. Bosumtwi is Ghana's largest natural lake – in fact its only one. Lake Volta is much bigger, but it was made by a dam.

Find it on the globe

Lake Bosumtwi 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.