Lake · Russia
Lake Ilmen
Lake Ilmen is a large, shallow lake in north-western Russia, between Moscow and Saint Petersburg. Its size changes enormously: when the rivers are full, it can be almost three times as big as when they are low.
Picture credit: Ssr (Public domain) · Alexxx1979 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Alexxx1979 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Lake Ilmen?
Countries on its shores: Russia.
Middle of the lake: 58.27° N, 31.29° E
The story behind it
About 50 rivers flow into Lake Ilmen; the biggest are the Msta, the Pola, the Lovat and the Shelon. Only one river flows out: the Volkhov. It carries the water north to Lake Ladoga, and from there the Neva takes it on to the Gulf of Finland. Just six kilometres down the Volkhov lies the old city of Veliky Novgorod. In the Middle Ages, traders used the lake as part of a famous trade route that led from the Varangians, as people called the Vikings from the north, all the way to the Greeks. Boats loaded with goods crossed the lake and travelled up its rivers. The name Ilmen probably comes from a Finnic word meaning "air lake". Today boats still sail on the lake, and fishers work there. In July the water is warm, about 19 to 20 °C, and people can swim for about three months a year.
Find it on the globe
Lake Ilmen 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.
Questions children ask
How big is Lake Ilmen?
On average Lake Ilmen covers about 982 km². Depending on how much water the rivers bring, it can shrink to about 730 km² or grow to about 2 090 km².
Why does Lake Ilmen change its size so much?
The lake lies in a very shallow basin that the rivers have almost filled with mud and sand. When the rivers bring a lot of water, it spreads out over a much bigger area.
What does the name Ilmen mean?
The name probably comes from the Finnic word Ilmajärvi, which means "air lake". Many other lakes in Russia were later named after Lake Ilmen.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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