Lake Geneva

Alternate uses: Lake Geneva (disambiguation)

Lake Geneva (French: Lac Léman or Lac de Genève) is the largest freshwater lake in central Europe, divided between France (Haute-Savoie) and Switzerland (cantons of Vaud, Geneva, and Valais).

A great crescent shape of blue water, it is 73 km long, at its widest it is 14 km and its maximum depth is 310 m. It covers approximately 582 km² of total area. The volume of water is estimated at 88.9 billion m³ with a catchment area of 7'975 km². The crescent shape is deformed around Yvoire on the southern shore, the lake can thus be divided into the 'Grand Lac' to the east and the 'Petit Lac' to the west.

Lake Geneva lies on the course of the Rhône River. The river has its source in the Furkapass to the east of the lake and flows down through the Canton Valais, entering the lake between Villeneuve and St-Gingolph, before flowing slowly towards its egress at Geneva. Other tributaries are the Drance, L'Aubonne, La Morges, Venoge, and Veveyse.

The shore between Geneva and Lausanne is called La Côte, between Lausanne and Vevey Lavaux.

Name

The first recorded name of the lake is Lacus Lemannus from Roman times, it became Lacus Lausonius, Lacus Losanetes and then the Lac de Lausanne in the Middle Ages. Following the rise of Geneva it became Lac de Genève (also translated into English) and in the 18th century, in French, Lac Léman was revived. It's usually called Lac de Genève in Geneva and Lac Léman elsewhere. Certain maps name the lake the Lac d'Ouchy. A note on pronunciation (in SAMPA Chart: English: Lake Geneva /leik dZ@"ni:v@/, French: Lac Léman /lak le"mA~/ or Lac de Genève /lak d2 Ze'nEv/, German: Genfersee /"gEnf@rze:/, Italian: Lago di Ginevra /"lago didZi"nevra/).

Cities and places