Lake No

Where is Lake No?

Countries on its shores: South Sudan.

Largest lake of: South Sudan.

Middle of the lake: 9.50° N, 30.46° E

The story behind it

Lake No lies at a meeting point of great rivers. Here the Bahr el Ghazal flows into the Bahr al Jabal, and from this point on the river is called the White Nile. The water has come a long way: the lake lies about 1 156 kilometres downstream of Lake Albert in Uganda. Lake No is very shallow, and most of its water evaporates into the air. It has more algae than any other part of the main swamp. All around lies the Sudd, a huge maze of papyrus plants. Sometimes big mats of plants break loose and drift away as floating islands up to 30 kilometres long. The Sudd is home to shoebills, big birds with a bill shaped like a shoe, and to hippos, Nile crocodiles and Nile lechwe antelopes. Local people call the lake Dhoo Lake. It lies at the heart of the home of the Ruweng people, who belong to the Dinka.

Find it on the globe

Lake No 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.