Lake
Lake Balkhash
Natural Earth’s outline of Lake Balkhash measures about 17,600 km² (6,790 mi²), the 15th largest of the 104 lakes on sizeversus, and about the same size as Kuwait.
100 km
- Lake Balkhash
- Kuwait
The numbers
- 17,600km²Area, measured6,790 mi² · Natural Earth outline
- 18,200km²Area, publishedWikidata · 3.3% above our measure
- 25mGreatest depthaverage about 6 m
- 106km³VolumeWikidata
- 342mAbove 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%.
What the numbers say about Lake Balkhash
- The Caspian Sea (called a sea or a lake, depending on the definition), the largest of the 104 lakes ranked on sizeversus, is 21.6× the size of Lake Balkhash; Lake Balkhash ranks 15th.
- Lake Balkhash sits between Lake Ladoga (17,700 km²) and Lake Maracaibo (12,200 km²) in the ranking.
- Counted as a country, Lake Balkhash would be larger than 57 of the 212 countries listed on sizeversus and would rank 156th by area, between Fiji (18,900 km²) and Kuwait (17,500 km²).
- It is larger than 5 of the 51 US states and districts (the biggest of them is Hawaii, 16,800 km²) and smaller than 46.
- It is larger than 3 of the 31 provinces and regions of China (the biggest of them is Beijing, 16,300 km²) and smaller than 28.
- The closest US state is Hawaii (16,800 km²): Lake Balkhash is 1.04× the size of Hawaii.
- Wikidata records a greatest depth of 25 m; with its volume that gives an average depth of about 6.0 m.
- Wikidata records a volume of 106 km³. Poured over Belgium (30,700 km²), that water would stand 3.5 m deep.
- Its surface lies about 342 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 Balkhash looks bigger there than it is.
- Laid out flat, Lake Balkhash stretches about 211 km north to south and 448 km east to west.
- Our measured 17,600 km² is 3.3% below Wikidata’s published figure of 18,200 km². Published areas of lakes and seas move with the water level and with what is counted, so a few percent is expected.
About the same size as
Countries
On the shore
Natural Earth’s outlines of Kazakhstan contain or lie within 4 km of the outline of Lake Balkhash. 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 Balkhashthe name in this page’s titlesource: Wikidata’s English label
- Balqash Klialso calledsource: Natural Earth
- Balkhashalso calledsource: Natural Earth
Where Lake Balkhash ranks
Lake Balkhash is the 15th largest of the 104 lakes on sizeversus, ranked by measured area.
Compare Lake Balkhash
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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