Location: Map
Area: 116 km²
Panguipulli Lake or Lago Panguipulli in Spanish is a beautiful lake surrounded by snow covered mountains in Chile. It covers a total area of 116 km². The lake gets its name from the mapudungun word that can be translated as "land of pumas". It has an area of 116.05 km², a maximum depth of 268 m, and is located at an altitude of 130 meters above sea level. The lake Panguipulli is of glacial origin and it is surrounded by Andes mountain range, on all sides except the west, where the town of Panguipulli is located in the beginning of the Chilean Central Valley. Panguipulli lake is drained by the Enco River that flows south to Riñihue Lake. The lake is one of the members of the tourist circuit known as the Seven Lakes and is part of the watershed of the Valdivia River that runs from Corral Bay to San Martin de los Andes (Argentina). The lake gets its name from the mapudungun pangui - pülli, "land of pumas".
Panguipulli Lake drains into Riñihue Lake through
the Enco River. It has an area of 116.05 km², a maximum depth of 268
m, and is located at an altitude of 130 meters above sea level.
The lake is one of the members of the tourist circuit known as
the Seven Lakes and is also part of the river basin of the Valdivia
River that runs from Corral Bay to San Martín de los Andes
(Argentina); that is to say it is transcordillerana and binational.
The lakes of the basin are nine: the Lácar and Nonthue lakes in
Argentina; and Pirehueico, Neltume, Calafquén, Pullinque,
Panguipulli and Riñihue in Chile.
History
The lake gets its name from the Mapudungun pangui - pülli,
"land of pumas".
Francisco Solano Asta-Buruaga y Cienfuegos wrote
in 1899 in his posthumous Geographical Dictionary of the Republic of
Chile about the lake he called Guanahue:
Guanahue.-—Name that has
been given to the lake and volcano of Panguepulli. It was also known by
that denomination the comprehensive region of the margins of the lake
and adjoining valleys, which originally inhabited the families of the
indigenous called guanahues or huenehues, neighbors to the E. of the own
huilliches. Form the name of huenu, above and hue, a place that is
equivalent to an eastern place or region.