Venetian Lagoon

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45° 26′ N, 12° 20′ E

Its name in the Italian and Venetian languages, Laguna Veneta of Latin lacus, “lake” has provided the English name for an enclosed, shallow embayment of salt water, a lagoon.

The Venetian Lagoon stretches from the River Sile in the north to the Brenta in the south, with a surface area of around 550 km². It is around 8% land, including Venice itself and many smaller islands. About 11% is permanently covered by open water, or canal, as the network of dredged channels are called, while around 80% consists of mud flats, tidal shallows and salt marshes. The lagoon is the largest wetland in the Mediterranean Basin.