Lake Nero

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For other uses of "Nero", see Nero (disambiguation).

Nero Lake near Rostov in winter (photo 2006).

View of Rostov from Nero Lake (photo 2006).

Lake Nero (Russian: Не́ро) is a shallow, highly eutrophic lake in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia. The lake has an area of 54.4 km², a maximum length of 13 km, width 8 km and depth 3.6 m. The bottom of the lake is covered with thick layer of silt sapropel (a sort of ooze used as fertilizer and for other purposes).

The lake is estimated to be about 500 thousand years old, making it one of a few pre-ice age lakes in central Russia.

The first people settled at the lake at 6 thousand years ago. It is historically certain that the Merya tribe had their capital in Sarskoe Gorodishche on the southern shore of the lake. They named the lake Nero (meaning "silty", "marshland") or Kaovo ("place, where lived gulls").

In the 9th Century East Slavs came to the lake. They called lake Nero or Rostovian in the honor of town Rostov.

On Nero Lake are located two islands: Levsky and Christmases (Russian: Рождественский) (another name is Urbanic (Russian: Городской)). This island formed a pre-ice age monolith. Flowing into Nero Lake are eight rivers (Sara (Russian: Сара), Ishnya (Russian: Ишня), Kuchibosh (Russian: Кучибош), Mazikha (Russian: Мазиха), Varus (Russian: Варус), Chucherka (Russian: Чучерка), Unitsa (Russian: Уница), Sula (Russian: Сула) etc.), one flows out (Veksa (Russian: Векса)).

View of Spaso-Yakovlevsky abbey in Rostov from Nero Lake (photo 2006).

View of Spaso-Yakovlevsky abbey in Rostov from Nero Lake (photo 2006)

Near Nero Lake is located the town of Rostov (on the western shore of the lake) and a few villages (on perimeter): Porech’e-Rybnoe (Russian: Поречье-Рыбное), Ugodichi (Russian: Угодичи), Vorzha (Russian: Воржа), L’vy (Russian: Львы) etc.

The first steamboat Emel’yan (Russian: Емельян) appeared on the Lake in 1883.