Highest, Deepest & Largest Lakes of Nepal — Rankings

Nepal's lakes (tal in Nepali) run from steaming Tarai oxbows near 200 metres above sea level to glacial tarns above 5,000 metres, and their superlatives are a staple of general-knowledge quizzes and public-service (Lok Sewa) exams. The largest lake is Rara in Mugu; the one usually named as the deepest is Shey Phoksundo in Dolpa; the highest recognised large lake is Tilicho in Manang, though a lake surveyed in 2019, Kajin Sara, may eventually claim that title; and Kapuche in Kaski is widely promoted as the world's lowest-altitude glacier lake. This page ranks them together with sourced figures and links each record to its full detail page in the Amarnepal lakes hub.

A recurring theme is that lake statistics in Nepal are approximate, and some are genuinely disputed. Surface areas swell and shrink with the monsoon, recorded depths depend on when and how a survey was done, and Ramsar wetland boundaries are usually many times larger than the open water they protect. Where two credible figures exist, we give both rather than pick one. Nepal has ten Ramsar-listed Wetlands of International Importance, and most of the record-holders below are among them.

Rara Lake, in the remote Mugu district of Karnali Province, is the largest lake in Nepal. It covers roughly 10.8 km2 — Wikipedia's infobox gives a slightly lower 10.61 km2 — at an altitude of about 2,990 m inside Rara National Park, which at 106 km2 is the country's smallest national park. The oligotrophic, deep-blue lake is about 5.1 km long and 2.7 km wide, and it was listed as a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention on 23 September 2007 (2064 BS).

Two related 'largest' records often get confused with Rara. The biggest natural lake in the Tarai plains is Ghodaghodi Lake in Kailali, far-western Nepal — an oxbow-lake system of about 2.5 km2, whose Ramsar site spans roughly 2,563 hectares of lakes, marsh and sal forest. The largest human-made reservoir is Jagadishpur in Kapilvastu (about 225 hectares, or 2.25 km2), an irrigation store built up in the 1970s and a Ramsar site since 2003 that has become one of the lowlands' premier birding wetlands. Among the Pokhara valley lakes, Phewa (about 4.4 km2, cited as high as 5.7 km2 with seasonal change and encroachment) is the largest and by far the most visited.

After Rara, the next-largest open-water bodies are Shey Phoksundo (about 4.9 km2), Tilicho (about 4.8 km2), Phewa (about 4.4 km2), Begnas (about 3.3 km2) and Beeshazari (about 3.2 km2). None comes close to Rara, which holds more than twice the surface area of the runner-up.

Shey Phoksundo, in the Dolpo region of Karnali, is the lake most commonly named as the deepest in Nepal. Its brilliant turquoise water sits at about 3,610 m at the heart of Shey Phoksundo National Park, the largest national park in the country. A 2004 survey by the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM) recorded a maximum depth of 145 m; a more detailed DHM survey in 2019 measured about 136.2 m. Below the natural landslide dam that holds the lake, its outlet drops over one of Nepal's highest waterfalls.

There is a genuine twist to the 'deepest lake' question, and it matters for exam answers. By recorded maximum depth, Rara Lake is actually deeper: standard references give Rara a maximum depth of about 167 m and an average depth near 100 m, both greater than Shey Phoksundo's 145 m (or the revised 136 m). So the honest position is that the popular, textbook answer is Shey Phoksundo, but the greatest recorded maximum depth belongs to Rara. Sources disagree, and we flag both figures rather than force a single winner.

The other notably deep lakes are far shallower. In the Gokyo chain beneath Everest, the largest lake, Thonak Cho, is about 62 m deep; high Tilicho has an average depth around 85 m; and popular Phewa reaches only about 24 m.

Tilicho Lake, high in Manang district, is the highest large lake in Nepal that is firmly established and widely recognised. Most sources put it at about 4,919 m (a few cite 4,949 m), fed by glacial melt from the northern slopes of the Annapurna range, and it is the most popular high side-trip on the Annapurna Circuit. For years Tilicho was described in Nepal as the 'highest lake in the world', a claim that needs careful qualification.

In early 2019 (2075/76 BS) mountaineers reported a lake sitting higher still — Kajin Sara, also called Singar or Singaar Lake — in Chame Rural Municipality of Manang. A local assessment team made a ground visit on 21–22 July 2019, followed by an aerial survey, and reported an elevation between roughly 5,000 and 5,200 m (Wikipedia gives 5,020 m), which would place it above Tilicho. Crucially, that elevation has never been scientifically verified: the lake's exact height, area and depth still await formal study, and Chame Rural Municipality has announced a technical and scientific survey to confirm the figures. Kajin Sara is therefore a strong but unconfirmed claimant to the title of Nepal's — and the world's — highest lake, not a settled record.

Global context is important, because 'highest lake in the world' claims for Nepali lakes are easily overstated. The highest lake of any kind is the small crater lake near the summit of Ojos del Salado on the Chile–Argentina border, at roughly 6,480–6,500 m; Lake Titicaca in South America is the highest large navigable lake at about 3,812 m. Tilicho and Kajin Sara are among the highest sizeable lakes a person can trek to, but neither is the world's highest lake overall.

At the opposite extreme from Tilicho is Kapuche (the Kapuche Glacier Lake), which lies below Annapurna II and Lamjung Himal in Madi Rural Municipality, near Sikles in Kaski district of Gandaki Province. Most reports place it at about 2,500 m — commonly cited as 2,546 m, with some sources giving figures as low as 2,421 m — which is strikingly low for a glacier-fed lake, given that almost every other glacial lake in Nepal sits above 4,000 m. The lake is small (about 0.12 km2) and roughly 40 m deep, with a vivid blue-green colour beneath sheer rock and hanging glaciers.

Because of that unusually low altitude, Kapuche is widely promoted as 'the world's lowest glacier lake', a phrase repeated by local officials and the tourism industry. It should be read as an indicative marketing and local-government claim rather than a peer-reviewed scientific designation, but the essential point — that a genuine glacier-fed lake exists so low in the Himalaya — is real and unusual. Reached on a short trek from Sikles, Kapuche has risen quickly as a new destination in the Annapurna region.

The list below ranks the best-documented lakes of Nepal by open-water surface area. Figures are approximate and, for lakes with strong seasonal swings such as Phewa, can vary noticeably between sources; each lake's detail page in the Amarnepal lakes hub carries the full sourcing, depth and altitude.

Anyone comparing sources on Nepal's lakes quickly meets contradictions, and there are good reasons for them. Surface areas expand in the monsoon and contract in the dry season, so a single lake can be quoted at several different sizes. Depths depend on the survey: Shey Phoksundo's headline figure fell from 145 m (2004) to 136 m (2019) simply because the newer bathymetric survey was more precise. And a Ramsar 'site' area — such as Ghodaghodi's 2,563 hectares — describes a whole protected wetland of lakes, marsh and forest, not the open water alone, which is why Ramsar figures dwarf lake areas.

For quiz and exam purposes, the durable, defensible answers are these: the largest lake is Rara; the deepest lake, by convention, is Shey Phoksundo (while noting Rara's greater 167 m maximum-depth figure); the highest recognised large lake is Tilicho, with Kajin Sara as an unverified claimant surveyed in 2019; the world's lowest glacier lake is claimed to be Kapuche; and the largest Tarai lake is Ghodaghodi, with Jagadishpur the largest reservoir. Where a record is disputed or a survey is pending, the safest wording is to name the recognised holder and note the challenger.