Wörthersee 4.8

Wörthersee is a lake in the southern Austrian state of Carinthia. The popular bathing lake is a main tourist destination in summer.GeographyWörthersee is Carinthia's largest lake. It is elongated, about 16.5km long and 1.5km wide, and stretches from the outskirts of the Carinthian capital Klagenfurt in the east to the bay of Velden in the west. Situated within the Klagenfurt Basin, its shores are flanked to the north and south by the foothills of the Gurktal Alps and the Karawanks range, all covered with dense forests beyond which snow-capped Alpine peaks are visible. The lake's water is of a distinctive blue-green colour and transparent.Lake Wörth and its basin in the central Carinthian foothills were largely formed by glaciers during the last ice age. The lake is divided into three basins by several islands and peninsulas. The western basin stretches from Velden to Pörtschach, the central basin from Pörtschach to Maria Wörth and the eastern basin from Maria Wörth to Klagenfurt. Numerous brooks flow into the lake; its sole distributary is the artificial Glanfurt creek in the east, eventually flowing into the Drava (Drau) river via the Glan and Gurk tributaries.