If you spend even a few minutes Googling “beautiful beaches” or “beautiful waters”, and let’s face it, if you weren’t using the Internet to cool your wanderlust, you wouldn’t be here, you’ll find there are a lot of competition, in everything. the world.
Are you heading to the pearls of Southeast Asia like Phuket or Myanmar’s Mergui archipelago, or the beautiful (but sunken) Maldives? Do you dive the reefs of Belize and the Bahamas, or skip the Caribbean for the Red Sea beaches in Egypt or even Sudan?
One option that many people generally forget is the Mediterranean and, specifically, Greece. Even travelers who come to Greece often head straight for the Cyclades, the group of islands that includes the iconic Mykonos and Santorini.
Two words explain why you shouldn’t do that: Lake Melissani.
Geology of Lake Melissani
Greece’s Lake Melissani, which may be home to the clearest waters in the world, sits inside a cave – a complicated arrangement, though not unique to Greece. Geologically, the Melissani lake and cave are quite similar to the cenotes found in the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico.
Indeed, Lake Melissani is an aquifer: the water inside the lake is seawater that has been absorbed by the cave, which filters it and makes it even more beautiful and transparent, and the seas of Greece, if you haven’t noticed, they are already splendid. , clear and blue. It’s not entirely fresh by the time you enter the cave and is technically still brackish, so consider this before you have a drink! The water that comes out of the cave returns to the sea and goes out to Fridi’s beach.
Physically, the surface of Lake Melissani is about 60 feet below the surface of the ground outside of it, and it features prominent stalactites, which are relatively common in appearance when compared to the remarkably clear water of the lake. Geologists estimate the cave to be around 20,000 years old, which is relatively young as geological things go.
Lake Melissani mythology
You can read online that Melissani Lake was “discovered” in 1951, but that’s only as far as modern people are concerned. Undoubtedly, the lake is mentioned in Greek mythology and, in fact, had an important place in it: it is known as the cave of nymphs, female spirits who embodied a sacred space somewhere between man and God, a space that I could feel. caught up when you visit Lake Melissani, read on to learn how.
How to visit Lake Melissani
Lake Melissani is located on the island of Kefalonia, which is in the group of Ionian Islands of Greece, located just west of the Greek mainland, an hour’s flight from Athens. Alternatively, you can reach Kefalonia by ferry from Piraeus, the port of Athens, and several other ports of call, both on the Greek mainland and within the Ionian Islands. How to get here will largely depend on how much time you have spent on your trip to Greece.
Lake Melissani is officially “open” to tourists from May to October and during the day, on the days that fall during those months. You can take a taxi (or drive your own car or motorcycle) to Sami, the closest city to the cave’s location, and then access the interior of the cave independently, thanks to the stairs that have been built. Please note that you will need to hire a boat and boat captain if you want to see the clear water from above.
Tours of the Melissani lake
Another way to visit the clearest lake in the world is by taking an organized tour to Lake Melissani with one of the dozens of tour companies operating in Kefalonia. The easiest way to organize a tour of Lake Melissani would be to do so through your hotel, although you can also search for dozens of tour companies on a walk through Kefalonia village.
Be careful though: these operators often prey on the desperation you might feel as a last-minute traveler, so if the fare they charge seems too high, it probably is. Tour prices, as with most things in Greece, can be negotiated, so if you feel like you are being scammed, try haggling at a price that is more favorable to you. Whatever you do, don’t let the vendors see you as clear as the waters of Lake Melissani!
