Lake Chapala

Where is Lake Chapala?

Countries on its shores: Mexico.

Largest lake of: Mexico.

Middle of the lake: 20.25° N, 103.00° W

The story behind it

Lake Chapala has been Mexico's biggest freshwater lake ever since Lake Texcoco dried up about 400 years ago. It is about 80 km long but only about 7 metres deep on average, so it is wide and shallow. Its main river, the Lerma, brings water from far away, and the Santiago River once carried water out of it. But so little water now arrives from the Lerma that for a long time no water has flowed out of the lake. Since the 1950s the city of Guadalajara has also taken much of its drinking water from Lake Chapala, so the water level rises and falls a lot. American white pelicans float on the lake, and 173 kinds of birds have been seen here. Small fish called charales live in the water. The largest of the three islands, Mezcala, has an old Spanish fort. Towns such as Chapala, Ajijic and Jocotepec lie on the shore.

Find it on the globe

Lake Chapala 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.