Lake Ohrid

Lake Ohrid ( Macedonian: Охридско Езеро, Ohridsko Ezero Albanian: Liqeni i Ohrit) straddles the mountainous border between the southwestern region of the Republic of Macedonia and eastern Albania, covering an area of 340 sq km (130 sq mi). The deepest (286 m/938 ft) lake of the Balkans, it is drained to the north by the Drin River. It is famous for its crystal clear water which is sometimes transparent to a depth of as much as 22 meters (66 feet). Underground springs feed the lake, which is also connected by underground channels to nearby Lake Prespa, about 10 km (6 miles) to the southeast.

Origin

Lake Ohrid and the Prespa Lakes belong to a group of Dasseretes basins that originated from a geotectonic depression two to three million years ago on the western side of the Dinaric Alps. Worldwide, there are only a few lakes with similarly remote origin. Most other lakes were formed as a result of the glaciation of the Pleistocene epoch. They are the Europe's oldest lakes. Because the lake is so deep that it never freezes and still contains prehistoric fish.

Cities

There are three cities on the lake's shores: Ohrid and Struga on the Macedonian side; Pogradec in Albania. There are also several fishing villages, although tourism is now a more significant part of their income.

Fauna

Lake Ohrid is teeming with letnica trout, lake-whitefish, roach and gudgeon, as well as for species of snails of a genus older than thirty million years; similar species can only be found in Lake Baikal (which is also one of the few lakes that can rival the clarity of Ohrid's water). Like other similarly remote lakes, Ohrid is home to a number of relict species, or “living fossils”, and many of the lake's endemic species are found only there. For example, ten of the seventeen identified fish species are unique to Ohrid, as are many of the lake’s snails, worms, and sponges.

The lakeshore reed beds and wetlands provide critical habitat for hundreds of thousands of wintering water birds, including rare and threatened species such as the Dalmatian Pelican, Ferruginous Duck, swan, Spotted Eagle, and Eastern Imperial Eagle.

One of the most fascinating species in the lake is the European eel, which comes to Lake Ohrid from the distant Sargasso Sea, thousands of kilometers away, and lurks in the depths of the lake for ten years. When sexually mature, the eel is driven by unexplained instincts to set off in the autumn back to its point of birth. There it spawns and dies, leaving its offspring to seek out Lake Ohrid, to begin the cycle anew.

External links

Lakes of the Republic of Macedonia | Lakes of Albania | Ohrid

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Origin

Cities

Fauna

External links