Lake Starnberg (German: Starnberger See) in southern Bavaria is Germany's fourth largest lake and a popular recreation area for the nearby city of Munich. Towns by the lake include Starnberg in the north, Seeshaupt in the south, and Tutzing in the west. The small town of Berg, Upper Bavaria near Starnberg is famous as the site where King Ludwig II of Bavaria was found dead in the lake in 1886. The lake, which was created by ice age glaciers from the Alps, extends 21 km (14 miles) from north to south and has a width of 3-5 km (2-3.5 miles) from east to west. It has a single, small island, the Roseninsel, and a single outlet, the Würm river (because of this river the lake was called the Würmsee until 1962). Its major inflow comes from a chain of small lakes in the south, Osterseen. This small river is called Ach or Ostersee-Ach. It is possible to circumnavigate the lake by cycle. The lake's water is of excellent quality due to a circular sewerage system being introduced in the 1960s, collecting all wastewater from around the lake and transporting it to a treatment plant below the lake's outlet at Starnberg. Roseninsel, or Rose Island, is the site of a royal villa of Ludwig II. The lake is cited in T. S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land. sorce : WIKIPEDIA
