Lake Nero () is a shallow, highly

eutrophic Eutrophication is the process by which an entire body of water, or parts of it, becomes progressively enriched with minerals and nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus. It has also been defined as "nutrient-induced increase in phytoplank ...

lake in

Yaroslavl Oblast Yaroslavl Oblast (russian: Яросла́вская о́бласть, ''Yaroslavskaya oblast'') is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), which is located in the Central Federal District, surrounded by Tver, Moscow, Ivanovo, Vladimir, Kostroma ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. The lake has an area of 54.4 km², a maximum length of 13 km, width 8 km and depth 3.6 m. The bottom of the lake is covered with thick layer of

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

sapropel Sapropel (a contraction of ancient Greek words ''sapros'' and ''pelos'', meaning putrefaction and mud (or clay), respectively) is a term used in marine geology to describe dark-coloured sediments that are rich in organic matter. Organic carbon con ...

(a sort of ooze used as

fertilizer A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

and for other purposes). The lake is estimated to be about 500 thousand years old, making it one of a few pre-

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

lakes in central Russia. The first people settled at the lake 6 thousand years ago. It is historically certain that the

Merya people The Meryans, also ''Merya'' (Russian: меря) were an ancient Finnic people that lived in the Upper Volga region. The Primary Chronicle places them around the Nero and Pleshcheyevo lakes. They were assimilated to Russians around the 13th centu ...

had their capital in Sarskoe Gorodishche on the southern shore of the lake. They named the lake ''Nero'' (meaning "silty", "marshland") or ''Kaovo'' ("place where

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, m ...

s live"). In the 9th Century

East Slavs The East Slavs are the most populous subgroup of the Slavs. They speak the East Slavic languages, and formed the majority of the population of the medieval state Kievan Rus', which they claim as their cultural ancestor.John Channon & Robert H ...

came to the lake. They called the lake ''Rostovian Lake'' in the honor of town

Rostov Rostov ( rus, Росто́в, p=rɐˈstof) is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero, northeast of Moscow. Population: While t ...

. There are two significant islands, ''Lvovsky'' (Львовский, " Island"), also known as ''Lesny'' (Лесный, "Forest Island"), and ''Rozhdestvenskij'' (''Рождественский'', "Christmas Island"), also known as ''Gorodskoj'' (''Городской'', "Town Island"). The latter formed a pre-

monolith A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive rock (geology), stone or rock, such as some mountains. For instance, Savandurga, Savandurga mountain is a monolith mountain in India. Erosion usually exposes the geological for ...

. The eight rivers that flow into Nero Lake are (), Ishnya (), Kuchibosh (), Mazikha (), Varus (), Chucherka (), Unitsa (), Sula () etc.), one flows out ( Veksa ()). Image:Rostov19.jpg, View of

from Nero Lake (photo 2006) Image:Rostov23.jpg, View of Spaso-Yakovlevsky abbey in

from Nero Lake (photo 2006) Near Nero Lake is located the town of

(on the western shore of the lake) and a few villages (on perimeter): Porech’e-Rybnoe (), Ugodichi (), Vorzha (), L’vy () etc. The first steamboat ''Emel’yan'' () appeared on the Lake in 1883.

References

Nero Lake {{YaroslavlOblast-geo-stub