Lake Geneva
- Alternate uses: Lake Geneva (disambiguation)
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 RhÃÂône 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 CÃÂôte, 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 GenÃÂève (also translated into English) and in the 18th century, in French, Lac LÃÂéman was revived. It's usually called Lac de GenÃÂève in Geneva and Lac LÃÂéman 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 LÃÂéman /lak le"mA~/ or Lac de GenÃÂève /lak d2 Ze'nEv/, German: Genfersee /"gEnf@rze:/, Italian: Lago di Ginevra /"lago didZi"nevra/).
| Southern shore | Northern shore | |
|---|---|---|
| Grand Lac
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| Petit Lac
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