Lake of Banyoles

Lake of Banyoles
Estany de Banyoles
Location Banyoles, Catalonia
Coordinates 42°07′31″N 2°45′19″E / 42.12528°N 2.75528°E / 42.12528; 2.75528Coordinates: 42°07′31″N 2°45′19″E / 42.12528°N 2.75528°E / 42.12528; 2.75528
Primary inflows Rec d'en Morgat, Riera del Vilar, Rec Majo, Rec de la Font Pudusa, Rec de les Ustunes
Primary outflows none
Catchment area 11.42 km2 (4.41 sq mi)
Basin countries Spain
Max. length 2,100 m (6,900 ft)
Max. width 750 m (2,460 ft)
Surface area 1.12 km2 (0.43 sq mi)
Average depth 14.8 m (49 ft)
Max. depth 62.4 m (205 ft)
Water volume 12,000,000 m3 (420,000,000 cu ft)
Shore length1 9.13 km (5.67 mi)
Surface elevation 172 m (564 ft)
Islands none
Settlements Banyoles
1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure.

Lake of Banyoles (or Estany de Banyoles) is a natural lake located in the comarca "Pla de l'Estany", Province of Girona, in northeastern Catalonia, Spain. It is named after the nearby town of Banyoles, to which it belongs entirely. On the western shore it borders with the town of Porqueres. The lake is approximately 2,100 m by 750 m with an average depth of 15 m that in several points gets down to 46.4 metres. It is located in a natural tectonic depression.

Presently Lake Banyoles is the largest natural lake in Catalonia. Lake Sils, located 33 kn further south, was formerly the largest lake in the area until it was drained in 1851.[1]

Flora and fauna

There are both native and introduced fish species in the lake, like carp, gardí, bavosa de riu, sunfish, tench, black bass and eel. It is known that other fishes like the pike, the peix gat and the goldfish were introduced in the 19th century, but no specimens of those species have been found in recent surveys in the lake.[2]

Sports in the lake

This lake became famous as the rowing location for the Barcelona Olympics 1992[3] and the World Rowing Championships in 2004. It is also a popular training location for many foreign rowers, particularly English rowers. It was also the site for the 1991 Junior World Rowing Championships.

A panorama of Lake Banyoles and Club Natació Banyoles
A panorama of Lake Banyoles

See also

References

  1. ↑ Estany de Sils - Una breu història
  2. ↑ Noves introduccions i poblament actual de peixos al llac de banyoles
  3. ↑ 1992 Summer Olympics official report. Volume 2. pp. 288-92.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, September 04, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.