Blue lagoon of Switzerland

SWISS PAGES

EVELINA RIOUKHINA & CECILIA BATAC

An image of a blue lagoon evokes in our imagination turquoise-blue and warm waters of the ocean, with white sandy beaches, or at least a bay at the sea coast with coralline blue waters and light sand. In reality, a blue lagoon can be found far away from the ocean and sea and in the middle of the country even.

Switzerland is a mountainous and landlocked country without direct access to the open sea. The country is linked with the sea through its rivers that connects to some major European rivers. These rivers ultimately flow into the seas: Rhine River (North Sea), Rhone River (Mediterranean Sea), Inn River through the Danube (Black Sea) and Ticino River through the Po (Adriatic Sea).

Switzerland has many majestic lakes, large and small. The two most extensive, Lake Geneva and Lake Constance, balance each other as they are situated on the opposite corners of Switzerland: one on the southwest corner and the other on the north-east. They are also the largest, but not wholly Swiss. Switzerland has 16 lakes with a surface area larger than 10 km²:

• Lake Geneva (Lac Léman, Lac de Genève) – 581.3 km² (shared with France)
• Lake Constance (Bodensee); 541.1 km² (shared with Germany/Austria)
• Lake Neuchâtel (Lac de Neuchâtel, Neuenburgersee); 218.3 km²
• Lake Maggiore (Lago Maggiore); 212.3 km² (mainly in Italy)
• Lake Lucerne (Vierwaldstättersee); 113.7 km²
• Lake Zurich (Zürichsee); 90.1 km²
• Lake Lugano (Lago di Lugano, Ceresio); 48.7 km² (partially in Italy)
• Lake Thun (Thunersee); 48.4 km²
• Lake Biel (Lac de Bienne, Bielersee); 39.6 km²
• Lake Zug (Zugersee); 38.3 km²
• Lake Brienz (Brienzersee); 29.8 km²
• Lake Walen (or Walensee, Lake Walenstadt); 24.1 km²
• Lake Murten (Lac Morat, Murtensee); 23.0 km²
• Lake Sempach (Sempachersee); 14.36 km²
• Sihlsee (Sihlsee); 10.72 km²
• Lake Hallwil (Hallwilersee); 10.21 km²

There are no large lakes in the Swiss portion of the Inn basin. The Lake Sils, which is about 5 km-long, is already the most extensive. Since the twentieth century, a large number of dams have been built in the Alps and elsewhere, resulting in many artificial lakes. The largest is the Sihlsee (and fifteenth largest of all Swiss lakes) on the river Sihl, south of Lake Zurich. Smaller mountain lakes are innumerable and Blausee is one of them.

Blausee (literally: Blue Lake) is a small lake in the Kander valley near the river Kander. It is 887 metres above Kandergrund and occupies an area of 0.64 hectares. Administratively, it belongs to the Bernese Oberland. The lake can be reached by bus from the train stations of Frutigen or Kandersteg. Thanks to its very special color and crystal- clear water sourced from subterranean springs, Blausee is one of the best-known mountain lakes in Switzerland. It is located in the midst of a 20-hectare large nature park with a landscape formed by a rock slide that led to the creation of the lake.