High-pressure mercury vapor discharge lamp has a discharge vessel of gas-tight radiation transmitting ceramic material, provided with a filling comprising a rare gas, mercury, sodium halide and thallium halide. The wall load (power consumption divided by the surface area of the outer wall of the discharge vessel) has a value of at least 25 W/cm<2>. The ratio between the effective internal diameter ID of the discharge vessel and the spacing EA between two electrodes has a value in the range of 0.4<=ID/EA<=0.9. |