The curve of the shoreline of a lake in the Scottish Highlands, with the greenery, some buildings, and hills in the distance. Scotland is famous for a large number of lakes, presenting some very beautiful scenic locations . In the Scottish and Irish languages, a lake is known as a Loch (actually a Loch is the translation for a lake or a sea inlet). A small lake is known as a lochan. In Scotland, the number of such lochs are incredibly large, with around 31,000 such freshwater bodies of water. The largest such body of water is Loch Ness (also very famous for supposedly having the monster, Nessie), with the maximum depth of water being a deep 230 meters. For many of these lakes, they are formed between hill ranges, and hence can be very long with the width being typically around 1 km (for example, the Loch is around 40 km in length with a maximum width of 1 km). Many of these lakes are located in the Scottish Highlands, and their setting tends to be very beautiful, contributing to the overall beauty of the region.