Lake Neusiedl

Where is Lake Neusiedl?

Countries on its shores: Austria, Hungary.

Largest lake of: Austria.

Middle of the lake: 47.83° N, 16.75° E

The story behind it

Lake Neusiedl is the westernmost of a long chain of steppe lakes that stretches across Europe and Asia all the way to China. About 240 km² of it lie in Austria and 75 km² in Hungary, so it has the largest lake surface in Austria. Its size changes with the water level. No river leaves the lake, only a canal dug by people, and most of the water simply evaporates. Salt in the ground makes the water slightly salty, about one twentieth as salty as the sea. Sometimes the lake dries up almost completely: between 1864 and 1870 people even grew rice on the dry lake bed. More than 300 kinds of birds have been seen here, such as great egrets and white storks. In winter the lake often freezes and becomes Central Europe's largest ice rink. In summer, sailors and windsurfers race across it, and towns like Rust and Podersdorf lie on its shores.

Find it on the globe

Lake Neusiedl 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.