Lake · Bolivia · Peru
Titicaca
Alpine lake in Peru and Bolivia
- Area
- 8,003km²
- Max depth
- 489m
- Average depth
- 112m
- Elevation
- 3,815m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 1,456km
- Volume
- 893km³
Titicaca is a lake in Bolivia. It covers 8,003 km². On average it is 112 m deep, and 489 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 3,815 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Titicaca?
The water is warmest in February, around 14 °C at the surface, and coldest in August, around 11 °C. Even at its warmest, the surface stays below 17 °C on average: this is cold water.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 15 °C on average in November and 12 °C in July. The driest month is June (6 mm of rain), the wettest January (110 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (106 readings). Shallow bays and beaches are often warmer.
From above
The whole lake from space
Month by month
The year at the lake, month by month
Not a forecast: these are averages over many years. Water is the 2013–2021 average; air, rain, sun and wind are the 1991–2020 average.
Water: 2013–2021 averageClimate: 1991–2020 average
| Month | Water°C | Water high°C | Air high°C | Air low°C | Rainmm | Rainy daysdays | Sunh/day | Windkm/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 14 | 14 | 14 | 6 | 110 | 22 | 7.8 | 15 |
| February | 14 | 14 | 14 | 6 | 110 | 20 | 8.0 | 16 |
| March | 14 | 14 | 14 | 6 | 74 | 17 | 8.8 | 15 |
| April | 14 | 14 | 13 | 5 | 34 | 9 | 9.9 | 13 |
| May | 13 | 13 | 13 | 4 | 13 | 3 | 10.9 | 11 |
| June | 12 | 13 | 12 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 11.0 | 11 |
| July | 12 | 12 | 12 | 3 | 9 | 2 | 11.0 | 12 |
| August | 11 | 11 | 12 | 3 | 9 | 3 | 11.0 | 12 |
| September | 12 | 12 | 13 | 4 | 21 | 6 | 10.4 | 14 |
| October | 12 | 12 | 14 | 5 | 43 | 9 | 10.3 | 14 |
| November | 13 | 13 | 15 | 6 | 36 | 10 | 10.4 | 14 |
| December | 14 | 14 | 14 | 6 | 93 | 18 | 8.5 | 15 |
Water: LakeTEMP (Landsat 8, 2013–2021). Air, rain, sun and wind: NASA POWER, 1991–2020 averages. A rainy day has at least 1 mm of rain. Sunshine hours are derived from measured solar radiation.
Size & depth
How big, how deep
- On average, water stays in the lake for about 52 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 56,588 km² of land.
- About 541 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 4.6 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Titicaca
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 30beaches and swimming spots
Playas de Vilurcuni, Chifron, Playa de Copacabana, Playa de Corihuaya, Playa Ccotos and 25 more
- 5campsites
Suma Samawi, Casa Blanca, Camp Titicaca
- 46boat hire and water-sport clubs
Catamaranes and 45 more
- 5marinas and slipways
Puerto lacustre, Yacht Club Boliviano
- 32ferry piers
Copacabana, Puerto Guaqui, Puerto Kalapajra, Punta Hermosa, Puerto Quewaya and 27 more
- 39viewpoints
Mirador Sagrado Corazón de Jesús, Mirador El Calvario, Mirador Q'eskapa, Calata Grande, Cerro Carus and 34 more
- 193hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Hotel Perla del Lago, Hotel Utama, Hostal Las Kantutas, Hostal Leyenda, Hostal 6 de Agosto and 188 more
- —fishing spots
- 109restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Puno128,637 people
- Yunguyo11,946 people
- Desaguadero8,635 people
- Juli8,566 people
- Putina8,118 people
- Copacabana6,000 people
- Desaguadero5,329 people
- San Pedro5,002 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Inca Manco Capac International Airport (JUL), 80 km in a straight line.
Car hire at LPB airport (La Paz / El Alto)Discover Cars · Affiliate linkOpenStreetMap is built by volunteers: when a number is low, it may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
Recent years
How each month compared
Afternoon high on the shore. The first row is the reference, the 1991–2020 average in °C; the years below show the difference from it: warmer in orange, cooler in blue.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991–2020 average | 13.9 | 13.8 | 13.7 | 13.4 | 12.9 | 12.0 | 11.5 | 12.4 | 13.2 | 14.2 | 15.1 | 14.4 |
| 2020 | +0.6 | +0.3 | +0.1 | +0.6 | +0.3 | +0.4 | +0.9 | +1.4 | −0.1 | −0.1 | +0.8 | −0.1 |
| 2021 | −0.5 | −0.5 | −0.9 | +0.1 | +0.1 | +0.1 | +0.7 | +0.7 | +0.5 | +1.0 | −0.5 | +0.1 |
| 2022 | −0.2 | −0.5 | −0.5 | +0.8 | +0.5 | −0.3 | +1.4 | +0.4 | +1.6 | +1.5 | +1.0 | +0.4 |
| 2023 | +0.6 | +0.8 | ±0.0 | +0.9 | −0.1 | +0.9 | +2.2 | +1.0 | +1.0 | +1.9 | +0.6 | +1.1 |
| 2024 | +1.6 | +0.7 | +0.5 | +1.8 | +1.5 | +1.6 | +1.4 | +1.4 | +1.4 | +1.2 | +0.4 | +1.3 |
| 2025 | +0.2 | +0.2 | −0.2 | +0.2 | +0.1 | +0.3 | +0.5 | +0.4 | −0.3 | −0.1 | ±0.0 | +0.3 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
ChileAbout these numbers
| Outline, area, depth, volume | HydroLAKES v1.0 (Messager et al. 2016) · CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|
| Water temperature and ice | LakeTEMP v1 (Korver et al. 2024), Landsat 8 2013–2021 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Air, rain, sun, wind | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 · public domain |
| Names and description | Wikidata (Q35342) · CC0 |
| Around the shore | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
