Lake Trichonida

Where is Lake Trichonida?

Countries on its shores: Greece.

Largest lake of: Greece.

Middle of the lake: 38.57° N, 21.55° E

The story behind it

Lake Trichonida lies in Aetolia-Acarnania, a region in western Greece, south-east of the city of Agrinio. It is about 19 km long and up to 7.5 km wide, and it covers about 98 km². Its surface is only about 15 metres above the sea, but the lake is deep: at one point it goes down about 58 metres. Next to it lies a smaller lake, Lake Lysimachia. No other lake that formed naturally in Greece is as big, so Trichonida is the country's largest natural lake. Its water is home to a tiny goby that lives nowhere else. A grown-up female is only about 1.8 cm long – this makes it the smallest freshwater fish in Europe. The lake is also a paradise for birdwatchers: about 200 kinds of birds live around it, and about 50 of them are rare.

Find it on the globe

Lake Trichonida 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.