The Bay of WismarKohl, Horst; Marcinek, Joachim and Nitz, Bernhard (1986). ''Geography of the German Democratic Republic'', VEB Hermann Haack, Gotha, p. 47. . or more commonly Wismar Bay or ''Wismarbucht'' is a well sheltered multi-sectioned bay in the southwestern

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...

, in

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in po ...

, Germany, and is considered the south-central part of the much larger arm of the Baltic known as the Mecklenburg Bay (or Mecklenburg

Bight The word is derived from Old English ''byht'' (“bend, angle, corner; bay, bight”). In modern English, bight may refer to: * Bight (geography), recess of a coast, bay, or other curved feature * Bight (knot), a curved section, slack part, or loo ...

, for its long narrow bent shape)—a long fingerlike gulf oriented to the west-southwest (WSW) from the (central) Baltic proper. Wismar bay is considered one of the finest natural harbors on the Baltic, and served as the destination for much seaborne shipping until circa the 1910s when its minimum depths of became too shallow for larger more modern ships. Today, because of the shallow sheltered waters the bay is the subject of much research via underwater archeology There are four lobe like parts of the Bay of Wismar which are themselves bays on its southern shores, each separated by a north intruding headland from the others (see maps at right) and a broad

channel Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...

running northwest to southeast parallel to the line formed by the tips of the four bounding headlands. The tips of the four headlands are remarkably well aligned and very closely

co-linear In geometry, a line is an infinitely long object with no width, depth, or curvature. Thus, lines are One-dimensional space, one-dimensional objects, though they may exist in Two-dimensional Euclidean space, two, Three-dimensional space, three, ...

spanning northwest to southeast tip to tipRuler tool using Google Earth along the channel along which the inlets are respectively Boltenhagen Bay, Wohlenberger Wiek, Eggers Wiek, and the inner bay. A channel, the Breitling between Poel island and the mainland is accounted part of the bay as well, which in its northern limit is the north shore of the island. From the western headland to the eastern shore of the inner bay is . All of the waters are bounded by

Poel Island Poel () or Poel Island (german: Insel Poel), is an island in the Baltic Sea. It forms the natural northern and eastern boundaries of the Bay of Wismar on the German coast. The northern coast of the island is also on the south side of the large gu ...

on one side—a large mainly agricultural and recreational island sheltering the most easterly parts of bay (the inner Bay of Wismar and the small coastal

seaport A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

) along most of its northern edge. The sheltered anchorage extends over a

rhombus In plane Euclidean geometry, a rhombus (plural rhombi or rhombuses) is a quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. Another name is equilateral quadrilateral, since equilateral means that all of its sides are equal in length. The ...

shaped area in the southerly lee of Poel island roughly N-S in the inner anchorage narrowing to N-S between the innermost headland and southernmost tip of the island and roughly 5–6 miles (8–10 km) that distance WNW to ESE. In general, the main waters of the bay are located to the west, southwest and south relative to Poel Island which is wholly within Wismar Bay. The northern tip of the island in a line westerly to the headland of Großklützhöved ( north of the village of

Klütz Klütz () is a town in the Nordwestmecklenburg district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is situated near the Baltic Sea coast, 22 km northwest of Wismar, and 33 km northeast of Lübeck. It is famous for the manor house B ...

) forms the mouth of the bay. Main ports:

Wismar Wismar (; Low German: ''Wismer''), officially the Hanseatic City of Wismar (''Hansestadt Wismar'') is, with around 43,000 inhabitants, the sixth-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the fourth-largest city ...

, by rail north of

Schwerin Schwerin (; Mecklenburgian Low German: ''Swerin''; Latin: ''Suerina'', ''Suerinum'') is the capital and second-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as well as of the region of Mecklenburg, after Rostock. It ...

Notes and references

{{Authority control

Wismar Bays of the Baltic Sea Geography of Mecklenburg

See also

Notes and references