Kandawgyi Lake ( my, ကန်တော်ကြီး ; literally "great royal lake", formerly Royal Lake), is one of two major
lake
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...
s in
Yangon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...
,
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
(Myanmar). Located east of the
Shwedagon Pagoda
The Shwedagon Pagoda (, ); mnw, ကျာ်ဒဂုၚ်; officially named ''Shwedagon Zedi Daw'' ( my, ရွှေတိဂုံစေတီတော်, , ) and also known as the Great Dagon Pagoda and the Golden Pagoda is a gilded stupa ...
, the lake is artificial; water from
Inya Lake
Inya Lake ( my, အင်းလျားကန်, ''ʔīnyā kǎn'' ; formerly, Lake Victoria) is the largest lake in Yangon, Burma (Myanmar), a popular recreational area for Yangonites, and a famous location for romance in popular culture. Locat ...
is channelled through a series of pipes to Kandawgyi Lake. It was created to provide a clean water supply to the city during the
British colonial administration.
It is approximately 5 miles (8 km) in circumference, and has a depth of 20 to 45 inches (50 to 115 cm).
The lake is surrounded by the
Kandawgyi Nature Park, and the 69.25-acre (28-hectare)
Yangon Zoological Gardens
The Yangon Zoo (Yangon Zoo) ( my, ရန်ကုန် တိရိစ္ဆာန် ဥယျာဉ် ) is the oldest and the second largest zoo in Myanmar. Located immediately north of downtown Yangon near Kandawgyi Lake, the recreational p ...
, which consists of a zoo, an aquarium and an amusement park.
![Karaweik-Palace](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Karaweik-Palace.JPG)
The lake itself is bounded by Natmauk Street to its north and east, Bahan Street to its west, and Kanyeiktha Street to its south. The lake used to be the site of the Rangoon Rowing Club turned
Kandawgyi Palace Hotel
The Kandawgyi Palace Hotel was a five-star hotel and historical landmark overlooking the Kandawgyi Lake in Yangon, Myanmar. The hotel caught fire on the morning of Thursday, 19 October 2017 and was destroyed.
History
The Kandawgyi Palace Hotel, b ...
, which was gutted by a fire in 2017. Along the eastern shorelines of the lake is the famous
Karaweik
Karaweik ( my, ကရဝိက် ဖောင် ) or Karaweik Hall is a palace on the eastern shore of Kandawgyi Lake, Yangon, Burma.
Etymology
The word ''karaweik'' comes from Pali karavika (), which is a mythical bird with a melodious cr ...
, a concrete replica of a Burmese royal barge built in 1972. It houses a buffet restaurant today.
On 15 April 2010,
three bombs exploded in a road near to the lake in the afternoon during the
Burmese New Year festival; 10 people were killed and 178 injured.
References
Lakes of Myanmar
Geography of Yangon
Parks in Myanmar
Tourist attractions in Yangon
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