Paravani Lake

Where is Paravani Lake?

Countries on its shores: Georgia.

Largest lake of: Georgia.

Middle of the lake: 41.46° N, 43.81° E

The story behind it

Paravani Lake is a volcanic lake on the Javakheti Plateau in Georgia. It lies between two mountain ranges, the Javakheti Range in the east and the Abul-Samsari Range in the west, and several mountains around it are more than 3 000 metres high. The lake covers about 37.5 km², which makes it the largest lake in Georgia. Yet it is very shallow: on average only a little more than 2 metres deep, and nowhere deeper than 3.3 metres. Small rivers, rain, melting snow and underground springs bring water into the lake, and at its southern end the Paravani River flows out. Because the lake lies so high, it freezes in winter, and the ice is 47 to 73 cm thick. People like to come here to fish. On the bottom of the lake lies something mysterious: it is thought to be a burial place from the Bronze Age.

Find it on the globe

Paravani Lake 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.