Lake
Lacus Henus
Listen to the story
Written in red and drawn very large, Lacus Henus sits just below the Alps beside the pass of the Great Saint Bernard, and a small river runs from it down past Aosta. This is the only record of the name, and some editors read it Nenus. Most likely it is the little lake on the pass itself: the stream leaving it is still called the Dora of the Great Saint Bernard, and the ancients took it for the beginning of the Dora Baltea, which really rises near Mont Blanc. The busy road from Aosta over the pass explains why so small a lake made it onto the map.