Yathkyed Lake

Where is Yathkyed Lake?

Countries on its shores: Canada.

Middle of the lake: 62.72° N, 97.92° W

The story behind it

Yathkyed Lake lies in the cold north of Canada, west of Hudson Bay. Together with its islands it covers about 1 449 km²; the water alone covers about 1 334 km². It is about 70 km long. The Kazan River flows right through the lake. Its name comes from the Sayisi Dene, a people who hunted caribou, and means “white swan”. Long ago, Caribou Inuit lived in the area, and people have found old tools and objects they left behind. Today nobody lives at the lake. The nearest village, Baker Lake, is almost 200 km away. The most amazing thing is one of its islands: it has a lake with an island, and on that island there is another lake with a tiny island of about 100 m². Such an island inside a lake, inside an island, inside a lake, on an island in a lake is thought to be the only one of its kind in the world.

Find it on the globe

Yathkyed 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.