Alkaline lake
Lake Alakol
Natural Earth’s outline of Lake Alakol measures about 2,840 km² (1,100 mi²), the 47th largest of the 104 lakes on sizeversus, and about the same size as Samoa.
50 km
- Lake Alakol
- Samoa
The numbers
- 2,840km²Area, measured1,100 mi² · Natural Earth outline
- 2,650km²Area, publishedWikidata · 7.2% below our measure, flagged
- 54mGreatest depthaverage about 20.6 m
- 58.6km³VolumeWikidata
- 347mAbove sea levelSurface, Wikidata
The area is measured from the outline drawn above, on the WGS84 ellipsoid; the published figure is shown beside it, and a water body is kept only if the two are within 10%. This one is between 5% and 10% apart, so it is flagged and no comparison is built for it automatically.
What the numbers say about Lake Alakol
- The Caspian Sea (called a sea or a lake, depending on the definition), the largest of the 104 lakes ranked on sizeversus, is 134× the size of Lake Alakol; Lake Alakol ranks 47th.
- Lake Alakol sits between Amadjuak Lake (3,130 km²) and Khövsgöl Lake (2,770 km²) in the ranking.
- Counted as a country, Lake Alakol would be larger than 39 of the 212 countries listed on sizeversus and would rank 174th by area, between Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (3,320 km²) and Samoa (2,780 km²).
- It is larger than 2 of the 51 US states and districts (the biggest of them is Rhode Island, 2,830 km²) and smaller than 49.
- It is smaller than every one of the 31 provinces and regions of China.
- The closest US state is Rhode Island (2,830 km²): Lake Alakol is about the same size as Rhode Island.
- Wikidata records a greatest depth of 54 m; with its volume that gives an average depth of about 21 m.
- Wikidata records a volume of 59 km³. Poured over Samoa (2,780 km²), that water would stand 21 m deep.
- Its surface lies about 347 m above sea level (Wikidata).
- On a standard web map (Web Mercator), a place at 46°N is drawn about 2.1× too large in area, so Lake Alakol looks bigger there than it is.
- Laid out flat, Lake Alakol stretches about 81 km north to south and 59 km east to west.
- Our measured 2,840 km² is 7.2% above Wikidata’s published figure of 2,650 km². This difference is flagged for review: a lake’s outline may include islands or bays that the published figure leaves out, or the water level may differ. The outline is kept because it is within 10%, and this page is not matched automatically to any other.
About the same size as
Countries
Chinese provinces
On the shore
Natural Earth’s outlines of Kazakhstan contain or lie within 4 km of the outline of Lake Alakol. That is what its geometry says, and it is not a statement about who owns the water or where any border runs in it.
Names
- Lake Alakolthe name in this page’s titlesource: Wikidata’s English label
- Alakol Lakealso calledsource: Natural Earth
- Alakolalso calledsource: Natural Earth
Where Lake Alakol ranks
Lake Alakol is the 47th largest of the 104 lakes on sizeversus, ranked by measured area.
Share this outline
Sources and method
- Outline
- Natural Earth, 1:10m Lakes + Reservoirs, public domain (Lakes + Reservoirs). Outlines of lakes are drawn at 1:10 million.
- Boundary
- A lake or a sea has no legal boundary of its own. The outline is a cartographic one, and the page says so by showing the measured area beside the published one.
- Area basis
- Measured outline: computed on the WGS84 ellipsoid from the full-detail outline and shown rounded. Published figure: Wikidata (CC0), fetched 2026-11-11. An outline is kept within 10% of the published figure and matched to other places automatically within 5%.
- Depth, volume, height
- As recorded in Wikidata; a volume that cannot be right for the area and depth is left out.
- Shore
- Countries whose Natural Earth outline contains or comes close to the water's outline; computed, not a statement of ownership.
- Drawing
- Each outline is projected with an equal-area projection centred on its own centroid, so areas stay true and two can be laid over each other.
- Data built
- 2026-11-11