Lake Garda ( or ; ; ; ; ; ) is the largest lake in Italy. It is a popular holiday location in northern Italy, about halfway between Brescia and Verona, and between Venice and Milan on the edge of the Dolomites. Glaciers formed this alpine region at the end of the last ice age. The lake and its shoreline are divided between the provinces of Brescia (to the south-west), Verona (south-east) and Trentino (north). Etymology In Roman times the lake was known as Benacus and by some it was revered as god Benacus, the personification of the lake, sometimes associated with the cult of Neptune. Today it is better known as Lake Garda, a toponym of Germanic origin attested since the Middle Ages and deriving from that of the homonymous town on the Veronese shore of the lake, which, together with another famous locality of the lake, Gardone Riviera, and others less known – such as Gàrdola, Gardoncino, Gardoni, Guàrdola and Le Garde – testifies the Germanic presence in the area that goes from the 6th to the 8th century AC, in particular, the Lombard one. The name Garda is evolved from the Germanic word warda, meaning "place of guard", "place of observation" or "place of safety". The classic toponym of the lake, or Benācus lacus (Benaco), is almost certainly of Celtic origin, therefore prior to romanization, and should derive from bennacus, comparable with the Irish bennach, which means "horned". The term may derive from the many promontories of the lake. Geography Morphology and hydrography The northern part of the lake is located in a depression that insinuates itself inside the Alps, while the southern part occupies an area of the upper Pianura Padana. The shape is typical of a moraine valley, probably having been formed under the action of a Paleolithic glacier. Although traces of the glacier's actions are evident today, in more recent years it has been hypothesised that the glacier occupied a previously existing depression, created by stream erosion 5 to 6 million years ago. A characteristic of Garda is the limited size of the hydrographic basin () compared to the lake surface: at a length of of the lake corresponds the of the basin, while the respective widths are 1 and . The eastern watershed of the Benacense basin has a direction parallel to the axis of the lake, while the western one has a