Lake Thun (german: Thunersee) is an

Alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National P ...

lake in the

Bernese Oberland The Bernese Oberland ( en, Bernese Highlands, german: Berner Oberland; gsw, Bärner Oberland; french: Oberland bernois), the highest and southernmost part of the canton of Bern, is one of the canton's five administrative regions (in which context ...

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 ...

named after the city of

Thun , neighboring_municipalities= Amsoldingen, Heiligenschwendi, Heimberg, Hilterfingen, Homberg, Schwendibach, Spiez, Steffisburg, Thierachern, Uetendorf, Zwieselberg , twintown = , website = www.thun.ch Thun (french: Thou ...

, on its northern shore. At in surface area, it is the largest Swiss lake entirely within a single canton. The lake was created after the last glacial period. After the 10th century, it split from Lake Brienz, before which the two lakes were combined, as ''Wendelsee'' ("Lake Wendel"). The culminating point of the lake's drainage basin is the Finsteraarhorn at above sea level. Lake Thun's approximate catchment area frequently causes local flooding after heavy rainfalls. This occurs because the river

Aare The Aare () or Aar () is a tributary of the High Rhine and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland. Its total length from its source to its junction with the Rhine comprises about , during which distance it descen ...

(german: Aare), which drains Lake Thun, has only limited capacity to handle the excess runoff. The lake is fed by water from Lake Brienz to the southeast, which is higher than Lake Thun, and various streams in the Oberland, including the Kander. In 1835, passenger steamships began operating regularly on the lake. Ten passenger ships, operated by the local railway company BLS AG like , serve the towns of Interlaken and

; the Interlaken ship canal and Thun ship canal connect the lake to Interlaken West railway station and Thun railway station respectively. Following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and up until 1964, the Swiss Government disposed of unused munitions into Lake Thun. The quantity of munitions dumped is reported to be from 3,000 to more than 9,020 tons.

References

External links

*
Lake Thun Tourism Portal

The River Aare sluices
{{Authority control

Thun Bernese Oberland LThun

Lakes of the Alps