The Lac de Guiers or Lake Guiers is a lake in northern

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 � ...

, south of the city of Richard-Toll and in the

Louga Louga ( ar, لوجا; Wolof: Luga) is a town in northwestern Senegal. Louga is a cattle market centre, and has road and rail links with the port city of Saint-Louis to the northwest and Dakar to the southwest. The area surrounding Louga is ...

and Saint-Louis regions.BirdLife International: IBA Factsheet: Lac de Guiers
/ref> It is a chief source of fresh water for the city of

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 2 ...

, hundreds of kilometers to the south-west, through underground pipes. It is about 35 kilometers long and 8 kilometers wide, and is supplied by the Ferlo or Bounoum River, which flows north into its southern end, from Fouta in the rainy season. Water used to flow out to the

Senegal River ,french: Fleuve Sénégal) , name_etymology = , image = Senegal River Saint Louis.jpg , image_size = , image_caption = Fishermen on the bank of the Senegal River estuary at the outskirts of Saint-Louis, Senegal ...

north through the Portuguese River, but this has been replaced by a straight canal to Richard-Toll. A dam was built in 1916 to prevent saltwater flowing in from Taoué River and the Senegal River delta. The shores are mostly fertile. The north shore and surrounding area have been converted to a large sugar-growing region irrigated with water from the lake. Lac de Guiers is designated an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

; the key species are

lesser flamingo The lesser flamingo (''Phoeniconaias minor'') is a species of flamingo occurring in sub-Saharan Africa and western India. Birds are occasionally reported from further north, but these are generally considered Vagrancy (biology), vagrants. Charac ...

(''Phoeniconaias minor''),

glossy ibis The glossy ibis (''Plegadis falcinellus'') is a water bird in the order Pelecaniformes and the ibis and spoonbill family Threskiornithidae. The scientific name derives from Ancient Greek ''plegados'' and Latin, ''falcis'', both meaning "sickle" a ...

(''Plegadis falcinellus''),

Eurasian spoonbill The Eurasian spoonbill (''Platalea leucorodia''), or common spoonbill, is a wading bird of the ibis and spoonbill family Threskiornithidae. The genus name ''Platalea'' is from Latin and means "broad", referring to the distinctive shape of the b ...

(''Platalea leucorodia''), African spoonbill (''Platalea alba''),

white-winged tern The white-winged tern, or white-winged black tern (''Chlidonias leucopterus'' or ''Chlidonias leucoptera''), is a species of tern in the family Laridae. It is a small species generally found in or near bodies of fresh water across much of the wo ...

(''Chlidonias leucopterus'') and

river prinia The river prinia (''Prinia fluviatilis'') is a species of bird of the family Cisticolidae. It is found in northwestern Senegal, along the Niger River (near the border between Mali and Niger), in the Lake Chad region and in northwestern Kenya. Its ...

(''Prinia fluviatilis''). The lake has a complicated history involving the kingdoms of

Tekrur Takrur, Tekrur or Tekrour ( 800 – c. 1285) was an ancient state of West Africa, which flourished roughly parallel to the Ghana Empire. Origin Takrur was the capital of the state which flourished on the lower Senegal River. Takruri was a ...

and

Waalo Walo ( wo, Waalo) was a kingdom on the lower Senegal River in West Africa, in what are now Senegal and Mauritania. It included parts of the valley proper and areas north and south, extending to the Atlantic Ocean. To the north were Moorish emira ...

and the Empire of Jolof (Diolof). Notably, the settlement of

N'Der N'Der (also spelled Nder or Ndeer) is a small town on the western shore of the Lac de Guiers, in northern Senegal. It was the third and last capital of Waalo until the annexion of the kingdom by France in 1855. Geography N'Der is located on the ...

, the third and final capital of the former Kingdom of

, was located on the west shores of the Lake. The royal compound or " keur" is still there. Previously Lac de Guiers was called Lac du Panier Foule or Pania Fuli, referring to the

Fula people The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people ( ff, Fulɓe, ; french: Peul, links=no; ha, Fulani or Hilani; pt, Fula, links=no; wo, Pël; bm, Fulaw) are one of the largest ethnic groups in the Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. ...

.In ff, Fulɓe; in french: Peul or .

References

Guiers, Lac de Dakar {{Senegal-geo-stub