7 Most stunning lakes in the world

On the surface, lakes look like any other body of water. When you take a closer look, however, you just might be surprised by the magic certain lakes carry within them. From endemic species to alternating colours, these seven lakes have so much to offer. 

Credit: efired

Set in the striking karst landscape of the Jiuzhaigou Valley in Sichuan province, Five Flower Lake is extraordinarily clear, with visibility to a depth of 40 metres revealing a lattice of ancient fallen tree trunks on the lakebed. Five Flower is one of a series of blue-, green- and turquoise-coloured lakes dammed by rock falls, but it differs from the others as its waters change colour, looking sometimes yellow, sometimes green, but usually diamond blue.

In winter, Five Flower never freezes; in summer, it never dries up. It truly is unlike other lakes. Local wildlife living in the adjacent mountain forests include the rare giant panda and the golden snub-nose monkey.

Credit: Grant Wylie

The deep-blue waters of Crater Lake in the northwestern US state of Oregon fill the caldera of an ancient volcano that collapsed 7,700 years ago. Its strangest occupant is the ‘Old Man of the Lake’, a nine-metre-tall tree stump bleached pure white by the elements, which has bobbed upright in the water for more than a century. No rivers enter the lake. Evaporation in summer is compensated by winter snow and rain, the entire body of water being replaced every 250 years.

Credit: StevanZZ

Surrounded on three sides by the Lipontine Alps and touching the plain of Lombardy to the south, Lake Maggiore is Italy’s longest lake. Considered part of the country’s lake district—which also includes lakes Como, Garda and Lugano—it is shared with Switzerland.

Temperatures here are mild all year and a Mediterranean-style climate prevails. This has given rise to some of northern Italy’s most magnificent gardens, including the English-style Giardino Botanico dell'Isola Madre, the Italianate gardens of Palazzo Borromeo on Isola Bella, and gardens with subtropical plants on the larger Isola di Brissago, which appear to float like flower-decked boats on the water.

Credit: Ozbalci

Ancient Lake Ohrid has been around for about five million years and straddles the mountainous border between Macedonia and Albania. It has unique plants and wildlife, including the Ohrid brown trout and the ‘plashica’, a fish endemic to the lake. The scales of the plashica are used to make Ohrid pearls.

Credit: ktianngoen0128

Phewa Lake in Nepal is famed for its still, crystal-clear waters, which offer a picture-perfect reflection of sacred Mount Machapuchare. Belonging to the Annapurna range of peaks in the Himalayas, Machapuchare is revered by locals and climbing it is forbidden. Visitors can take a boat to an island in the middle of the lake that is home to the eighteenth-century Hindu Tal Barahi temple.

Credit: micheyk

The Plitvice Lakes in the mountains of central Croatia are a series of 16 blue-green lakes connected by spectacular waterfalls and natural dams of travertine rock.

The shifting landscape of this limestone region was formed by several small rivers that eat away at the underlying rocks, picking up sediment in one place and depositing it in another as they flow from lake to lake.

Credit: Olga_Danylenko

Mid-November at Lake Tekapo on New Zealand’s South Island is Russell lupine time. From then until January, the roadside verges and untended ground around the lake are carpeted with the dense, bright-coloured flower spikes of lupins.

The lake lies at the base of New Zealand’s Southern Alps, its milk-blue colour the result of powdered rock, ground up by glaciers, that remains suspended in the water reflecting the light.

Banner credit: NataliaDeriabina

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