Lake Razelm

Where is Lake Razelm?

Countries on its shores: Romania.

Largest lake of: Romania.

Middle of the lake: 44.83° N, 28.98° E

The story behind it

Long ago, Lake Razelm was a bay of the Black Sea. Over time, sand and mud piled up and cut it off from the open sea, and it became a lagoon – a lake right next to the sea. In the 1970s people closed the last gaps, so today only a narrow strip of sand separates the lake from the salty sea. Since then, water from the Danube has made the lake fresh, and almost no salt is left. Razelm is about 28 kilometres long and is joined to Lake Golovița by a wide channel. On Popina Island in the north, many birds find a safe place to rest and nest, and pelicans live in the area. For a very long time, fishing has been the main work of the people who live around the lake and in the Danube Delta. The lake is part of a World Heritage Site.

Find it on the globe

Lake Razelm 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.