Lake Rosa

Where is Lake Rosa?

Countries on its shores: the Bahamas.

Largest lake of: the Bahamas.

Middle of the lake: 21.02° N, 73.50° W

The story behind it

Lake Rosa is about 19 kilometres long and fills nearly a quarter of the inside of Great Inagua, the second largest island of the Bahamas. Its water is salty and very shallow: it is only about 1.5 metres deep. Because the lake is so flat, its exact size is hard to measure, but maps show about 180 square kilometres. That makes it not only the largest salt-water lake but also the biggest lake of all in the Bahamas. The whole lake lies inside Inagua National Park, which was set up in 1965 and is protected as a wetland of worldwide importance. The park is home to the world's largest breeding colony of West Indian flamingos, with more than 50 000 birds. They wade through the lake and eat tiny brine shrimp. Nearby, a salt company uses more than 80 salt ponds, where the sun dries sea water until only salt is left.

Find it on the globe

Lake Rosa 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.