Lake Mjøsa

Lake Mjøsa, lake, southeastern Norway. Lying 35 miles (56 km) north of Oslo at the southern end of famed Gudbrands Valley, it is the largest lake in Norway. It is long and narrow, with a roughly north-northwest to south-southeast axis, and is a link between the Lågen River to the north and the Vorma-Glomma (Glåma) river system to the south. Its length is 62 miles (100 km), and its width ranges from 1 to 9 miles (1.6 to 14 km); its greatest depth is 1,473 feet (449 metres), and its area is 142 square miles (368 square km). Lake Mjøsa is a popular tourist centre (boating and fishing), and Lillehammer, at its northern end, and Hamar, on its eastern shore, are the largest lakeshore towns. The small island of Helgøya is in the centre of the lake. On the east coast, north of Hamar, are the ruins of a 12th-century cathedral. The use of Mjøsa by both tourists and municipal water systems was endangered in the 1970s by algal growth, but a program completed in 1980 to eliminate the inflow of untreated sewage improved the quality of nearby rivers and restored swimming to the lake.