Mecklenburg Lake District
Encyclopedia
The Mecklenburg Lake District (German: Mecklenburgische Seenplatte) is the largest coherent lakes and canals area in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. It is situated in southern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, extending somewhat into the north of Brandenburg
Brandenburg
Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...
, and sometimes called "the land of the thousand lakes".
The Seenplatte includes Müritz National Park
Müritz National Park
The Müritz National Park is a national park situated roughly in the middle between Berlin and Rostock, in the south of the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It extends over large portions of the Müritz lakeland in the district of Mecklenburgische Seenplatte. Müritz National Park was founded...
, which contains Germany's second-largest lake as well as the wildlife reserves Feldberger Seenlandschaft, Mecklenburgische Schweiz and Nossentiner/Schwinzer Heide.
Like the Pomerania
Pomerania
Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...
n and Masuria
Masuria
Masuria is an area in northeastern Poland famous for its 2,000 lakes. Geographically, Masuria is part of two adjacent lakeland districts, the Masurian Lake District and the Iława Lake District...
n lake plateaus the Mecklenburg Lake District was formed during the ice age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
. The many lakes are remnants of the receding ice from about 12,000 years ago.
The area around the Mecklenburg Lake District is flat, sparsely populated and mainly covered by forests, lakes and moors. The lakes themselves are popular for boating and fishing. They are natural habitat for numerous plants and animals, including endangered species.
For a few years the area was a member of the European Geoparks Network
European Geoparks Network
The European Geoparks Network, often known as the EGN, is a trans-national partnership of Geoparks across Europe formed in 2000 to provide mutual support to established and prospective Geoparks across the continent...
and the Global Network of National Geoparks but as at 2011 it no longer possesses that status.