BOSUMTWE is a sacred lake to the Ashanti. According to traditional beliefs, the souls of the dead Ashanti-Tripe come here to bid farewell to their god TWE.
1.3 Million years ago, a meteorite with the size of aprox. 800m hit the earth and created a huge crater which is today Lake Bosumtwe. The average diameter of the crater rim is 10.5km, the hills have an altitude of over 600m. The lake has an average diameter of 8.5km and is 76m deep.
After the impact the landscape in the area went through several different stages caused by climate changes. Sometimes periods of heavy rainfall filled the whole crater with water so the lake level was up to the lowest points of the rim. These periods became obvious when fossils of fish were found on the top of the hills.
Krater
The water was even flowing out of the basin through an overflow channel. But there were also times when the water
level was so low that rain forest could come up inside the basin and the lake itself was only a small pond. This period lasted until about 300 years before present.