Lake Voulismeni

Voulismeni sits in the middle of Agios Nikolaos, a roughly circular body of water just under fifty metres deep with a cliff on one side and cafes around the rest, connected to the harbour by a short channel cut in 1870. It was believed for a long time to be bottomless. The town has grown around it and the lake edge is where everything in Agios Nikolaos happens in the evening.

Background

Locals call it The Lake. It is round, 137 m across and 48.8 m deep, and was once a freshwater lake. The surrounding rock is limestone breccia left by undersea landslides from the mountains northwest of town, and the cliff on one side is the scarp of a fault that cuts through Agios Nikolaos. After the Messinian Salinity Crisis an underground stream dissolved a small cave here, which later collapsed into a funnel-shaped sinkhole that the spring filled. In 1852 Thomas Spratt measured the depth as 64 metres, but a University of Athens survey in September 2000 found 48.8 m. The earthquake of 12 October 1856 probably blocked the spring and brought down the western corner.

Source: Wikipedia, "Lake Voulismeni"

Highlights

• The depth - water just under fifty metres deep in the middle of a town.
• The cliff - the rock wall closing one side of the lake.
• The channel - the cut made to the harbour in 1870.
• The cafe ring - the terraces around the rest of the water.

When to go

April to June and September to October are the pleasant months. Evenings are when the lake edge fills. Summer brings the heaviest crowds.

Before you go

It is entirely surrounded by tourist restaurants at tourist prices. The water is not clean enough to be attractive close up. It is small and half an hour walks all the way round.

Nearby

The harbour is alongside, and Spinalonga is northeast.

Key facts