Lake Morat or Lake Murten (french: Lac de Morat ; german: Murtensee) is a

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 ...

located in the cantons of Fribourg and

Vaud Vaud ( ; french: (Canton de) Vaud, ; german: (Kanton) Waadt, or ), more formally the canton of Vaud, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of ten districts and its capital city is Lausanne. Its coat of arms b ...

in the west of

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. It is named after the small bilingual town of Murten/Morat on its southern shore. It is the smallest of the three lakes in the Seeland or Pays des trois lacs area of the Swiss plateau located at the foot of the first chain of the

Jura mountains The Jura Mountains ( , , , ; french: Massif du Jura; german: Juragebirge; it, Massiccio del Giura, rm, Montagnas da Jura) are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps and mainly demarcate a long part of the Frenc ...

. The main tributary is the river Broye. Since the

Jura water correction The correction of the waters of the Swiss Jura consisted of a wide series of hydrological undertakings carried out in Switzerland in the region of the three lakes: Lake Morat connected to Lake Neuchatel by the Broye Canal, the latter connected t ...

its water leaves the lake through the

Broye Canal The Broye (; frp, Brouye''Dictionnaire-Dikchenéro: Français-Patois/Patê-Franché''. Société cantonale des patoisans fribourgeois. Fribourg: 2013. p. 87 ) is a 68 km long river, in the cantons of Fribourg and Vaud, in Switzerland. It ha ...

(''Canal de la Broye'') into nearby Lake Neuchâtel that is connected to Lake Bienne/Lake Biel through the

Thielle The river Thielle (french: La Thielle, or La Thièle, german: Zihl), is a tributary to the Aare, in the Swiss Seeland. The Thielle results from the merging of the Orbe and Talent, northeast of the little city of Orbe in the Swiss canton of Vaud ...

canal. Thus all three lakes form a natural

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

in order to retain overflow water from the river Aare that flows into Lake Bienne/Biel: in times of combined heavy rainfalls and

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

melting Melting, or fusion, is a physical process that results in the phase transition of a substance from a solid to a liquid. This occurs when the internal energy of the solid increases, typically by the application of heat or pressure, which incre ...

in the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...

, the peculiar situation arises that the water flows backwards through the Thielle and Broye canals, preventing an overflow of the Grand Marais (german: Grosses Moos). Karte Murtensee fr

Notes

External links

* *
Waterlevels of Lake Morat
at

Morat Morat may refer to: * Morat, Switzerland, or Murten, a town in Switzerland * Battle of Morat (1476), between the Swiss Federation and Charles I, Duke of Burgundy * Morat (band), a Colombian folk band * Morat, a type of mead that uses mulberries. S ...

LMorat Fribourg–Vaud border {{vaud-lake-stub