Europe, Lakes Review

Introduction

The continent, with offshore islands, including the Faeroes but not Iceland or Svalbard, covers 10,350,000 km². Its eastern border is taken as the Ural Mountains and Ural River. Its longest rivers are the Volga, Danube (Donau), Ural, Dnieper, Don, Pechora, Dniester, Dvina, and Rhine. Iceland (about 100,000 km²) is below included when presenting the European lakes. Europe’s northern limit is North Cape (Norway) at 71°10′20″N. and its southern limit is Cape Tarifa (Spain) at 36°01′N, although the southern point of Cyprus (34°30′N) exceeds this. The western limit of the mainland is Cape Roca (Portugal, at 9°30′W); when Ireland is included it is Dunmore Head (Eire, at 10°30W). The eastern limit is in the farthest north of the Ural mountains (75°30′N).

Europe has some very famous lakes, treasured as beauty spots and honored in song and literature, although most of them are rather small. The majority are associated with the glacial history and deglaciation of the great...