What is the largest lake in the world?
The Caspian Sea is the largest lake in the world, at about 371,000 square kilometers. The largest freshwater lake by area is Lake Superior in North America.
Despite its name, the Caspian Sea is a lake because it is completely surrounded by land and has no outlet to the ocean. Its water is slightly salty, about a third as salty as seawater. It borders five countries: Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Azerbaijan.
Lake Superior, shared by the United States and Canada, covers about 82,000 square kilometers and is the largest of the Great Lakes. By volume, the largest freshwater lake is Lake Baikal in Siberia, which is also the deepest lake on Earth at about 1,640 meters.
Changing lakes
Lakes can shrink dramatically. The Aral Sea in Central Asia was once the fourth-largest lake in the world, but it lost most of its water after rivers feeding it were diverted for farming starting in the 1960s. Africa's largest lake, Lake Victoria, is a key source of the Nile.
Did You Know?
Lake Baikal holds about a fifth of all the unfrozen fresh surface water on Earth, more than all five Great Lakes combined.