Lakes and standing inland waters

Abaya (landform)

Lake Abaya (Abaya landform), also called Lake Margherita, is Ethiopia's largest Rift Valley lake (1,160 km2), a turbid, reddish-brown, quasi-endorheic freshwater lake draining into Lake Chamo via the Kulfo River.

African Great Lakes

The African Great Lakes are seven rift-valley lakes (Victoria, Tanganyika, Malawi, Turkana, Albert, Edward, Kivu) across ten countries, holding about a quarter of Earth's surface fresh water and famed for cichlid diversity and fisheries.

Albert

Albert: primarily Lake Albert (Mwitanzige, formerly Lake Mobutu Sese Seko), a transboundary rift lake shared by Uganda (54%) and DR Congo (46%), fed by the Semliki and Victoria Nile, draining as the Albert Nile; also a South Australian lake named in 1840.

Amadeus

Lake Amadeus, Australia's Northern Territory salt lake named by Ernest Giles in 1872 after King Amadeo I of Spain; largest NT salt lake, ~180 km long, 50 km north of Uluru, a groundwater-discharge playa.

Amadjuak

Amadjuak names a large freshwater lake (about 3,115 km2) on southern Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada, second only to Nettilling Lake, plus a former Inuit settlement, a bay, a river, and an Ordovician geologic formation.

America Lake

America Lake refers to several lakes: Lake America (Lake Ontario renamed by 2026 executive order), American Lake in Pierce County, Washington (1,091 acres), America Lake in Brule County, South Dakota, and American Lake in Iron County, Wisconsin.

Ang Laren

Ang Laren, also called Ngangla Ringco, is a large brackish salt lake in Zhongba County, Tibet, China, lying at about 4,700 m on the western Tibetan Plateau.

Aral Sea (Арал теңізі)

Aral Sea (Арал теңізі), brackish terminal lake between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, once the world's fourth-largest lake; shrank over 90% in volume after Soviet irrigation diverted the Amu Darya and Syr Darya from the 1960s; North Aral partially restored by the 2005 Kokaral Dam.

Argentino

Lago Argentino (Lake Argentino), largest freshwater lake entirely in Argentina, in Santa Cruz, Patagonia; about 1,435 km², fed by Southern Patagonian Icefield glaciers including Perito Moreno and Upsala, drains via the Río Santa Cruz.

Åsnen

Åsnen is a large lake in southern Småland, Sweden, whose archipelago of more than a thousand islands lies within Åsnen National Park, established in 2018.

Athabasca (lake)

Lake Athabasca, largest lake in Saskatchewan (7,935 km2, 213 m), straddling the Saskatchewan-Alberta border; fed by Peace, Athabasca, and Fond du Lac rivers, drains via Slave River to Great Slave Lake; Cree name, fur-trade hub, gold and uranium mining.

Ayakum

Ayakum (Ayakkum) Lake, a closed-basin saltwater lake in the Kumukuli Basin between Altyn Tagh and Kunlun mountains, northern Tibetan Plateau, Xinjiang, China; expanded from 623 km² (1990) to over 1140 km² (2023), becoming Xinjiang's largest lake.

Aydar

Aydar (Aydar Ko'li, Aydarkul) is a large brackish artificial lake in Uzbekistan's Kyzylkum Desert, formed in 1969 by 21.8 km3 of Chardarya reservoir flood discharge; part of the 4,000 km2 Ramsar-listed Aydar-Arnasay lake system with fisheries and ecotourism.

Baker (lake)

Baker Lake (Qamani'tuaq, "where the river widens") is a large Arctic lake in Nunavut's Kivalliq Region at the mouth of the Thelon River, near Canada's geographic centre; named in 1761 after HBC governor Sir William Baker, it hosts Nunavut's only inland Inuit community.

Balkhash

Lake Balkhash (Balkash) is Kazakhstan's large endorheic lake, Central Asia's largest at about 17,000 km2, fresh in the west and saline in the east, fed mainly by the Ili River and threatened by upstream water use.

Ballard

Ballard: primarily Lake Ballard, a 60-km intermittent hypersaline salt lake near Menzies, Western Australia, home of Gormley's 51 'Inside Australia' sculptures; also a Seattle neighborhood, a Wisconsin lake, and a Kentucky wildlife area.

Barlee

Lake Barlee is a large intermittent salt lake in the Mid West of Western Australia; at about 1,980 square kilometers it is the state's second largest lake and fills roughly once a decade.

Bear Lake (Idaho–Utah)

Bear Lake is a large turquoise freshwater lake on the Idaho-Utah border in a half graben valley of the Bear River, 32 km long, up to 63 m deep, with four endemic fish and a famous 1868 monster legend.

Beloe

Beloe (Beloye Ozero, White Lake) is the Russian name of many lakes; the largest, in Vologda Oblast, Russia, is a 1,284 km2 shallow lake on the Volga-Baltic Waterway, distinct from smaller namesakes in Belarus, Moscow, and Siberia.

Beyşehir

Beyşehir (Beyşehir Gölü) is Turkey's largest freshwater lake, in Konya and İsparta provinces; a 1993 national park with 33 islands, Seljuk Kubadabad Palace, major birdlife, and declining water levels under drought and irrigation pressure.

Bieler Lake

Bieler Lake: official lake in Nunavut, Canada, at 70°23′N 73°5′W, named 5 April 1951, NTS sheet 037E07, water level about 505 m asl; distinct from the Swiss Bielersee.

Bienville

Bienville names Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville (1680-1767), founder of New Orleans, and places honoring him, chiefly Lac Bienville (1,047 km2, Quebec) and Bienville Parish, Louisiana.

Big Ass Lake

Big Ass Lake is an officially named small lake in Halifax County, Nova Scotia, Canada, also called a glacial lake near Moose River Gold Mines; named March 5, 1953, CGNDB key CACXC, coordinates 44.92555, -62.932829.

Big Quill Lake

Big Quill Lake: Canada's largest saltwater lake, largest of Saskatchewan's three Quill Lakes; shallow (~1.5 m), hypersaline, Ramsar site since 1987, major piping plover habitat.

Billabong

Billabong: Australian English term for an oxbow lake or stagnant backwater, first recorded 1865 from Billibang (billa, water). Forms by meander neck cutoff; ecology driven by hydrological connectivity; threatened by feral ungulates and drying.

Blue Lake

Blue Lake (Ramsar site 800, 1996) is a 28 m deep glacial cirque lake in Kosciuszko National Park, NSW, one of four on mainland Australia, with Hedley Tarn, a dimictic regime, and threatened alpine species.

Bluenose

Bluenose Lake is a large lake in Kitikmeot, Nunavut, Canada, at 68°25′N 119°45′W, named in 1953 by Nova Scotian caribou biologists; about 400 km², drained by the Croker River, with Bluenose-East and Bluenose-West caribou calving on either side.

Bolmen

Bolmen is a large lake in western Småland, Sweden, about 184 km² with over 360 islands, the largest being Bolmsö. Since 1987 it supplies Skåne with drinking water via the 80 km Bolmen Tunnel, and it is studied for brownification.

Bosten

Bosten Lake (博斯腾湖), also called Bagrash Lake, is China's largest inland freshwater lake, in Yanqi Basin, Xinjiang, at about 1,048 m elevation. Terminal of the Kaidu River and source of the Kongque River; salinity rose from 0.38 g/L in 1956 to 1.87 g/L in 1988.