Largest protected swamp

The Sudd is a swamp in the lowlands of South Sudan that is highly variable in size. During the dry season it is around 30,000 km² in area but, during the wet season, it can grow to around 130,000 km² in size. At its maximum, its size is dictated mostly by the amount of water discharged from Lake Victoria. The Sudd is formed by the White Nile river and its individual swamps, lagoons and thick vegetation have made it an impenetrable barrier to exploration and land use. The hostile terrain of the Sudd prevented soldiers of the Roman Emperor Nero from expanding his empire further into equatorial Africa in 61 CE. Since 2006, some 57,000 km² have been protected by the Ramsar Convention. The Sudd loses around half of its water each year to evaporation.