Phewa Lake

Phewa is the most famous of the Pokhara valley lakes and the centrepiece of Nepal's busiest tourist city. It lies at about 742 m on the valley floor, roughly 4 km long and up to 2 km wide; its surface area is variously cited between about 4.4 km² and 5.7 km², the spread reflecting both seasonal change and decades of shoreline encroachment and siltation. The lake reaches a maximum depth of about 24 m with an average near 8.6 m, holding on the order of 43 million cubic metres of water fed mainly by the Harpan, Adheri and Phirke streams from a catchment of roughly 122 km².

On clear mornings the Annapurna massif and the fishtail peak of Machhapuchhre are mirrored on its surface, an image that has become shorthand for Pokhara itself. The two-storey pagoda of Tal Barahi temple stands on a small island near the eastern shore and is the lake's spiritual focus, reached by the wooden doonga boats that crowd the lakeside. The southern and western shores remain forested and quiet, while the Lakeside (Baidam) strip on the east is a dense run of hotels, cafés and boat jetties.

Phewa is the largest water body in the Lake Cluster of Pokhara Valley, designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance on 2 February 2016. That site spans about 261 km² of lakes and catchment around Pokhara and includes Phewa, Begnas, Rupa and several smaller lakes — open water makes up only a few per cent of the protected area, the rest being the hill catchment that feeds it.

Sediment cores suggest the lake basin is around 14,000 years old. Today its level is partly regulated by a dam on the outlet, and managing sedimentation from the steep, fast-eroding catchment is a continuing concern for a lake whose tourism economy depends on clear, open water.