Lake Winnipesaukee is the largest lake in the U.S. state of New Hampshire

New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

. It is approximately 21 miles (33.8 km) long (northwest-southeast) and from 1 to 9 mi (1.6 to 14.5 ) wide (northeast-southwest), covering 69 square miles (179 km²)—71 square miles (184 km²) when Paugus Bay

Paugus Bay

Paugus Bay is a water body located in Belknap County in the Lakes Region of central New Hampshire, in the city of Laconia. It is connected by a short channel at the village of Weirs Beach to Lake Winnipesaukee...

 is included—with a maximum depth of 212 feet (64.6 m).

The lake contains at least 253 islands, half of which are less than a quarter-acre in size, and is indented by several peninsulas, yielding a total shoreline of approximately 288 miles (463.5 km).