Lake Amadeus is a huge salt lake in the southwest corner of Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

's Northern Territory

Northern Territory

The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...

, about 50 km north of (Ayers Rock).

Physical features and nearby landmarks

Due to the aridity of the area, the surface of Lake Amadeus is usually a dry salt crust. In times of sufficient rainfall, it is part of an east-flowing drainage system that eventually connects to the Finke River

Finke River

The Finke River is one of the largest rivers in central Australia. Its source is in the Northern Territory's MacDonnell Ranges, and the name Finke River is first applied at the confluence of the Davenport and Ormiston Creeks, just north of Glen Helen. From here the river meanders for approximately...

. Lake Amadeus is 180 km long and 10 km wide, making it the largest salt lake in the Northern Territory. It contains up to 600 million tonnes of salt, however harvesting it has not proved viable due to its remote location.

Nearby landmarks are: Ayers Rock, The Olgas and Mount Conner

Mount Conner

Mount Conner, also known as Attila and Artilla, and occasionally found as Mount Connor, is an Australian mountain located in the southwest corner of the Northern Territory, southeast of Lake Amadeus at the border of the vast Curtin Springs cattle station...

.

Discovery

The first European to discover the lake was the explorer Ernest Giles

Ernest Giles

William Ernest Powell Giles , best known as Ernest Giles, was an Australian explorer who led three major expeditions in central Australia.- Early life :...

, who had originally intended to honour his benefactor Baron Ferdinand von Mueller

Ferdinand von Mueller

Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, KCMG was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist.-Early life:...

 with the eponym Lake Ferdinand. However Mueller prevailed upon Giles to instead honour King Amadeo I of Spain (known in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 as King Amadeus I), who had previously bestowed honour on him. The lakes expanse was a barrier for Giles who could see both the as yet un-discovered Ayers Rock and Kata Tjuta but could not reach them as the dry lake bed wasn't able to support the weight of the horses. The next year, William Gosse

William Gosse

William Christie Gosse , explorer, was born in Hertfordshire, England and migrated to Australia with his father in 1850. He was educated at J.L. Young's Adelaide Educational Institution and in 1859 he entered the Government service of South Australia. He held various positions in the survey...

 climbed and named both rises.

See also

• List of lakes in Australia
• Post-abdication and legacy of Amadeo of Spain