Lake Geneva

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Alternate uses: Lake Geneva (disambiguation)

Lake Geneva (French: Lac L�man or Lac de Gen�ve) 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 [[1 E8 m�|582 km�]] of total area. The volume of water is estimated at [[1 E10 m�|88.9 billion m�]] with a catchment area of [[1 E9 m�|7'975 km�]]. 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 Rh�ne 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 C�te, 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 Gen�ve (also translated into English) and in the 18th century, in French, Lac L�man was revived. It's usually called Lac de Gen�ve in Geneva and Lac L�man elsewhere. Certain maps name the lake the Lac d'Ouchy. A note on pronunciation: English: Lake Geneva (LAYK j�-NEE-v�), French: Lac L�man (LAHK lay-MAHNG) or Lac de Gen�ve, German: Genfersee (GENF-�r-zay), Italian: Lago di Ginevra (LAH-go dee-jee-NAY-vrah).

Cities and places

List of cities and places on Lake Geneva
Starting from the entry of Rhone River on the east end, with the southern shore to the left.

	Southern shore	Northern shore
Grand Lac	Le Bouveret, Valais St-Gingolph in Valais and Haute-Savoie Bret, Haute-Savoie Locum Meillerie Lugrin Evian Amphion-les-Bains Thonon-les-Bains [[Anthy-sur-L�man]] [[S�chex]] Sciez Excenevex Yvoire	Villeneuve, Vaud Chillon castle Territet Montreux Clarens La Tour-de-Peilz Vevey Corseaux St-Saphorin Rivaz Cully Lutry Paudex Lausanne with Ouchy and Vidy St-Sulpice Morges Tolochenaz St-Prex Buchillon Allaman Perroy Rolle Bursinel Dully Gland Promenthoux
Petit Lac	Nernier, Haute-Savoie Messery [[Chens-sur-L�man]] Tougues, Haute-Savoie Hermance, Geneva Chevrens [[Ani�res]] Corsier Collonge-Bellerive [[V�senaz]] Cologny	Prangins Nyon, Vaud [[Crans-pr�s-C�ligny]], Geneva [[C�ligny]], Geneva Coppet, Vaud Tannay, Vaud Mies, Vaud Versoix, Geneva Bellevue Genthod [[Chamb�sy]]
	Geneva

[[fr:L�man]]

References

• Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Lake_Geneva" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Geneva, used under the GNU Free Documentation License