__NOTOC__ Totesee (Germanized: Totensee) is a small natural

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

() at the

Grimsel Pass The Grimsel Pass (; ; ) is a mountain pass in Switzerland, crossing the Bernese Alps at an elevation of . The pass connects the Haslital, the upper valley of the river Aare, with the upper valley of the Rhône. In so doing, and as the Aare is a t ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. The lake lies immediately to the south of the natural watershed and cantonal boundary at the pass. It is therefore in the

canton of Valais Valais ( , ; ), more formally, the Canton of Valais or Wallis, is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of thirteen districts and its capital and largest city is Sion, Switzer ...

, and it would naturally drain into the river

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before dischargi ...

in the valley below. However a

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

has been constructed to enable its use as a

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

, increasing its size and raising its level by . As part of this work, an aqueduct supplies water to the

Grimselsee The Grimselsee or Lake Grimsel is an artificial lake near the Grimsel Pass in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland. With a volume of 95 mio m3 (20.9 billion imperial gallons, 20.1 billion US gallons), it is larger than other hydroelectric reservoirs in ...

, which drains into the river

Aare The Aare () or Aar () is the main tributary of the High Rhine (its discharge even exceeds that of the latter at their confluence) and the longest river that both rises and ends entirely within Switzerland. Its total length from its source to i ...

and thus forms part of the Rhine catchment. In November 2006, the lake's entire trout population died, possibly due to

algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...

. The name ''Totensee'' (also: ''Lake Toten'', literally "Lake of the Dead") is said to be derived from soldiers of Duke

Berchtold V of Zähringen Berchtold (also Berthold, Bertold, Bertolt) is a Germanic name from the Old High German ''beruht'' ('bright' or 'brightly') and ''waltan'' ('rule over'). The name came into fashion in the German High Middle Ages from about the 11th century. The cog ...

driven into the lake by the people of Valais after the Battle of Ulrichen in 1211.

References

External links

* Lakes of Valais Reservoirs in Switzerland LTotensee {{Valais-lake-stub

See also

References

External links