Danau Laut Tawar is a lake and tourist area located in the Gayo Highlands, Central Aceh District, Aceh. On the west side of this lake is a city district, Takengon, which is also the capital of Central Aceh Regency. The Gayo tribe calls this lake the Lake Lut Tawar. The area is approximately 5,472 hectares with a length of 17 km and a width of 3,219 km. The volume of water is approximately 2,537,483,884 m (2.5 trillion liters).
There are 25 krueng (river) streams which lead to Danau Laut Tawar with a total water discharge of approximately 10,043 liters per second.
Average lake depth:
- 35 meters from the edge of the lake: 8.9 meters.
- 100 meters from the edge of the lake: 19.27 meters.
- 620 meters from the edge of the lake:51.13 meters.
Average lake watertemperature is measured by depth:
- 1 meter: 21.55 °C
- 5 meters: 21.37 C
- 10 meters: 21.15 C
- 20 meters: 20,70 °C
- 50 meters:19.35°C
The highest brightness is 2.92 meters (in the middle of the lake), while the lowest is 1.29 meters (Kp. Kuala II). The higher the brightness, the clearer the water is.
**Flora **
Found 46 types of plankton which are divided into 11 classes in Lake Laut Tawar, with details of Chlorophyceae class of 35%, Bacillariophyceae 24 %, Myxophyceae 9% , and other classes by 32%. Hydrilla sp., Water hyacinth, and kiambang can also be found living on the edge of the lake.
Fauna
There were 3 types of mollusks, 1 type of annelida, 37 species of fish, and 49 types of insects that live in the Danau Laut Tawar area. For animals that live around the lake, 20 mammal species are divided into 13 families, some of which include protected animals, including binturung, pukas, pangolin, porcupine mouse deer, sweepers, gibbons, siamang, tanado, tigers, jungle cats, duck, deer, and deer.
