Prespa lake

Great Prespa lake
	Maligrad island
Geographical location	Albania, Greece, North Macedonia
Drain	only underground to Lake Ohrid
Islands	Golem Grad, Maligrad
	Data
Coordinates	40 ° 54 ′ N , 21 ° 2 ′ E Coordinates: 40 ° 54 ′ N , 21 ° 2 ′ E
Altitude above sea level	849 m above sea level A.
surface	273 km²
length	34 km
width	10 km
Maximum depth	54 m
particularities	National park

The Great Prespa or just Prespa ( Macedonian Преспанско Езеро Prespansko Ezero ; Albanian Liqen / -ii Prespes ; Greek Λίμνη Μεγάλη Πρέσπα Límni Megáli Prespa ) is a lake in the border region of northern Macedonia , Albania and Greece within the Balkan Peninsula .

geography

The Great Prespa Lake extends over an area of 273 square kilometers. The largest north-south extension is 34 kilometers, the east-west up to ten kilometers. The water level is 849 meters above sea level. It is up to 54 meters deep and is therefore one of the only three lakes in Greece that have a water depth of more than 50 m. The average water temperature is 16 ° C, the maximum 22 ° C.

The Great Prespa Lake is largely located in North Macedonia (around 190 square kilometers) and in Albania, the smallest part in the south belongs to the territory of Greece.

A little to the south is the Kleine Prespa lake , which is separated from the large Prespa lake by a narrow land bridge. Its water surface is four meters higher and the water temperature is higher than that of the Great Prespa Lake. The Small Prespa Lake drains into the Large Prespa Lake. The main part of the lake is on Greek territory, the extreme west on Albanian territory.

The Prespa lake is surrounded by high mountains. Its banks are very indented and there are several small islands; whose largest is Golem Degree . The lake is mainly fed by underground tributaries and some streams. The drainage takes place underground to the deeper Lake Ohrid .

Nature reserves

Pelicans off the island of Golem Grad

The lake is very rich in fish and a habitat for many rare animal and plant species. It is particularly important as a breeding and wintering place for many rare bird species, for example the great white pelican ( Pelecanus onocrotalus ) and the Dalmatian pelican ( P. crispus ). The wolffish species Cobitis meridionalis occurs exclusively in Lake Prespa.

The Prespa lakes are particularly worthy of protection wetlands in the sense of the Ramsar Convention . The 27,750 hectare Prespa National Park was established in 1999 on the Albanian side of the large and small Prespa lakes .

The national park is part of an approximately 2000 km² network of different nature reserves, which range from Lake Ohrid to the small Prespa Lake and which was jointly founded by the three neighboring countries with the assistance of the Euronatur organization.

Due to low rainfall and the increased extraction of water for agriculture and household consumption, the water level of the lake has fallen significantly in recent years.

On the North Macedonian shore
evening atmosphere
Riverside area in North Macedonia
NASA image

literature

Gabriel Schwaderer, Annette Spangenberg: Prespa-Ohrid region . EuroNatur Service , Radolfzell 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-027579-1 .
Wolfgang Fremuth (Ed.): Albania. Guide to it's Natural Treasures . Publishing house Herwig Klemp, Hatten u. Tirana 2000, ISBN 3-931323-06-4 .
Alain J. Crivelli: Lake Prespa, northwestern Greece. A unique Balkan wetland. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht 1997, ISBN 978-94-010-6179-7 , reprint of Hydrobiologia , volume 351 (1997), doi : 10.1007 / 978-94-011-5180-1 .

documentary

In the heart of the Balkans. The pelicans from Prespa Park. Documentary, Germany, 2011, 43:10 min., Script and director: Cornelia Volk, camera: Jochen Schmoll, Frank Eckert, production: Matthey Film, MDR , arte , series: In the Heart of the Balkans, first broadcast: December 8, 2011 at arte, table of contents and online video from 3sat .

Web links

Commons : Prespa Lake - collection of images, videos and audio files

Transboundary Prespa Park (English) ( Memento from March 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
Protection of Biodiversity (GTZ)
Society for the Protection of Prespa (gr./engl.)
Photographic impressions of the Prespa lakes (Greek part)

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b N. T. Skoulikidis, I. Bertahas, T. Koussouris: The environmental state of freshwater resources in Greece (rivers and lakes). Environmental Geology 36 (1-2) November 1998. pp. 1 ff.

↑ Prespa National Park ( Memento of the original from June 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in: prespanationalpark.gov.al @1@ 2

[freshwaterresources-1] N. T. Skoulikidis, I. Bertahas, T. Koussouris: The environmental state of freshwater resources in Greece (rivers and lakes). Environmental Geology 36 (1-2) November 1998. pp. 1 ff.