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Lake Constance (German: Bodensee, pronounced [ˈboːdn̩ˌzeː] ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (Obersee), Lower Lake Constance (Untersee), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Lake Rhine (Seerhein). These waterbodies lie within the Lake Constance Basin (Bodenseebecken) in the Alpine Foreland through which the Rhine flows. The lake is situated where Germany, Switzerland, and Austria meet. Its shorelines lie in the German states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria; the Swiss cantons of St. Gallen, Thurgau, and Schaffhausen; and the Austrian state of Vorarlberg. The actual location of the border is disputed. The Alpine Rhine forms in its original course the Austro-Swiss border and flows into the lake from the south. The High Rhine flows westbound out of the lake and forms (with the exception of the Canton of Schaffhausen) the German-Swiss border as far as to the city of Basel. The most populous towns on the Upper Lake are Constance (German: Konstanz), Friedrichshafen, Bregenz, Lindau (Bodensee), Überlingen and Kreuzlingen. The largest town on the Lower Lake is Radolfzell am Bodensee. The largest islands are Reichenau in the Lower Lake, and Lindau and Mainau in the Upper Lake. While in English and the Romance languages, the lake is named after the city of Constance, the German name derives from the village of Bodman (municipality of Bodman-Ludwigshafen), in the northwesternmost corner of the lake. Description Lake Constance is the third largest freshwater lake by surface area in Central and Western Europe (and the second largest in volume), after Lake Geneva and (in surface area) Lake Balaton. It is 63 km (39 mi) long, and, nearly 14 km (8.7 mi) at its widest point. It covers about 536 km2 (207 sq mi), and is 395 m (1,296 ft) above sea level. Its greatest depth is 252 metres (827 ft), exactly in the middle of the Upper Lake. Its volume is about 48 km3 (12 cu mi). The lake has two parts. The main east section, called Obersee or "Upper Lake", covers about 473 square kilometres (183 sq mi), including its northwestern arm, the Überlinger See (61 km2 (24 sq mi)), and the smaller west section, called Untersee or "Lower Lake", with an area of about 63 square kilometres (24 sq mi). The connection between these two lakes is the Seerhein (lit.: "Lake Rhine"). Geographically, it is sometimes not considered to be part of the lake, but a river. The Lower Lake Constance is loosely divided into three sections around the Island of Reichenau. The two German parts, the Gnadensee (lit.: "Lake Mercy") north of the island and north of the peninsula of Mettnau (the Markelfinger Winkel), and the Zeller See, south of Radolfzell and to the northwest of the Reichenau island, and the mainly Swiss Rheinsee (lit.: "Rhine Lake") – not to be mistaken for the Seerhein at its start – to the south of the island and with its southwestern arm leading to its effluent in Stein am Rhein. The river water of the regulated Alpine Rhine flows into the lake in the southeast near Bregenz, Austria, then through the Upper Lake Constance hardly targeting the Überlinger See, into the Seerhein in the town of Konstanz, then through the Rheinsee virtually without feeding both German parts of the Lower Lake, and finally feeds the start of the High Rhine in Swiss town Stein am Rhein. The lake itself is an important source of drinking water for southwestern Germany. The culminating point of the lake's drainage basin is the Swiss peak Piz Russein of the Tödi massif of the Glarus Alps at 3,613 metres (11,854 ft) above sea level. It starts with the creek Aua da Russein (lit.: "Water of the Russein"). Car ferries link Romanshorn, Switzerland, to Friedrichshafen, and Konstanz to Meersburg, all in Germany. History Lake Constance was formed by the Rhine Glacier during the Quaternary glaciation ice age and is a Zungenbecken or Tongue lake. After the end of the last glacial period, about 10,000 years ago, the Obersee and Untersee still formed a single lake. The downward erosion of the High Rhine caused the lake level to gradually sink and a sill, the Konstanzer Schwelle, to emerge. The Rhine, the Bregenzer Ach, and the Dornbirner Ach carry sediments from the Alps to the lake, thus gradually decreasing the depth and reducing the extension of the lake in the southeast. In antiquity, the two lakes had different names; later, for reasons which are unknown, they came to have the same name. In the 19th century, there were five different local time zones around Lake Constance. Constance, belonging to the Grand Duchy of Baden, adhered to Karlsruhe time, Friedrichshafen used the time of the Duchy of Württemberg, in Lindau, the Bavarian Munich time was observed, and Bregenz used Prague time, while the Swiss shore used Berne time. One would have needed to travel only 46 kilometres (29 mi) to visit five time zones. Given the amount of trade and traffic over Lake Constance, this led to serious confusion. Public clocks in harbors used three different clock faces, depending on the destinations offered by the boat companies. In 1892, all German territories used CET, the Austrian railways had already introduced CET the previous year and Switzerland followed in 1894. Because traffic timetables had not been yet updated, CET became the sole valid time around and on Lake Constance in 1895. Name The earliest recorded reference to the lakes is by Roman geographer Pomponius Mela around 43 AD, calling the upper lake Lacus Venetus and the lower lake Lacus Acronius, the Rhine passing through both. Around 75 AD, The naturalist Pliny the Elder called them both Lacus Raetiae Brigantinus after the main Roman town on the lake, Brigantium (later Bregenz). This name is associated with the Celtic Brigantii who lived here, although it is not clear whether the place was named after the tribe or the inhabitants of the region were named after their main settlement. Ammianus Marcellinus later used the form Lacus Brigantiae. The current German name of Bodensee derives from the place name Bodman, which probably originally derived from the Old High German bodamon which meant "on the soils", indicating a place on level terrain by the lake.: 500  This place, situated at the west end of Lake Überlingen (Überlinger See), had a more supraregional character for a certain period in the early Middle Ages as a Frankish imperial palace (Königspfalz), Alamannian ducal seat and mint, which is why the name may have been transferred to the lake ("lake, by which Bodman is situated" = Bodmansee). From 833/834 AD, in Latin sources, the name appears in its Latinised form lacus potamicus. Therefore, the name actually derived from the Bodman Pfalz (Latinized as Potamum) was wrongly assumed by monastic scholars like Walahfrid Strabo to be derived from the Greek word potamos for "river" and meant "river lake". They may also have been influenced by the fact that the Rhine flowed through the lake.: 501ff  Wolfram vo.... 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