Totensee

The Totensee (also Totesee ) is a 0.18 km ² large lake in the canton of Valais on the Grimsel Pass on the border with the Canton of Bern. The Totensee got its name because supposed to have been driven by the Welshmen into the lake about 800 years ago soldiers of the army of Duke Berchtold V of Zahringen there. About 200 years ago also soldiers of the armies of General Suvorov and Napoleon there have died. The lake is located at 2,160 m above sea level directly on the watershed between the North Sea and the Mediterranean. The water of the lake flows into the Grimsel ( 1,909 m) and thus over the river Aare to the North Sea. Therefore be not only water flows into the Rhone and thus into the Mediterranean because of its south-eastern shore an artificial dam was constructed by the Swiss. The content of the lake is approximately 2.5 million cubic meters, the maximum depth is 34 m.

In November 2006, all fish died by initially unexplained circumstances in the lake. A subsequently initiated scientific investigation has shown that an excess of algae the lake robbed the oxygen and thus led to the death of fish. On learning of the cause, rainbow and lake trout were exposed in Canadian lake by the Pennine Fishery Inspectorate, ever again 400.