The lake is known as Danau Ranau (Ranau Lake) while the sleeping volcano is called Mt. Seminung.
Even-though the lake is the second largest in Sumatera and the scenery is beautiful, it is still not known by many people because the location is quite far from major cities of Sumatera. To be precise, the location is at the border of South Sumatera Province and Lampung Province. It takes around 6 to 7 hours drive from Bandar Lampung to the north.
It is said that the lake was created by a very large volcanic eruption long time ago, which formed a big basin. Some rivers that formerly flowed at the foot of the volcano then started to flow to the newly formed basin and filled it with water. Later on, the big basin turned into a big lake. Living being also started to emerge in and around the lake. Local people who came to the lake found that there were many plants which they called “ranau” grew around the lake. So they called the new lake with the name of the plants.
The rest of the big volcano is still exists and looms over the edge of the lake as if guarding it from any intrusions, but in fact it adds something that makes the scenery more picturesque.
There is also a small island called Mariza in the middle of the lake. On the island, there is a hot spring which proofs that Mt. Seminung is still an active volcano.
Visitors can reach the lake shore in some places around the lake. At that time, I took these pictures from three different locations (those were Lumbok, Sukarame, and Banding Agung). There is also a small waterfall in Sukarame which called Subik Tuha Waterfall. It is about 20 to 25 meters high. Its clear water flows to the lake through a small river called Way Leray.