TheLake Prespa is located on thetripoint ofNorth Macedonia,Albania andGreece. It is a system of two lakes separated by anisthmus: the Great Prespa Lake, divided between the three countries, and the Little Prespa Lake, mostly within Greece. They are the highesttectonic lakes in theBalkans, at an elevation of 853 metres (2,799 ft).
The Great Prespa Lake (Macedonian:Преспанско Езеро,Prespansko Ezero,Albanian:Liqeni i Prespës së Madhe,Greek:Μεγάλη Πρέσπα,Megáli Préspa) has the total surface of 259 km2 (100.00 sq mi). The largest part of it, 176.3 km2 (68.07 sq mi) belongs to North Macedonia; 46.3 km2 (17.88 sq mi) to Albania; and 36.4 km2 (14.05 sq mi) to Greece.
To the south, the Little Prespa Lake[4] (Greek: Μικρή Πρέσπα,Mikri Prespa; Albanian:Prespa e Vogël; Macedonian: Мало Преспанско Езеро) has the total surface area of 46.8 km2 (18.07 sq mi), most of it in Greece, with the westernmost tip (4.3 km2 (1.66 sq mi)) in Albania.
The two lakes are separated by a 4-kilometre-long (2.5 mi) and 500-metre-wide (550 yd) isthmus on the Greek territory, carrying an embankment with a road connecting the village ofPsarades. A short stretch of a canal connects the lakes on the western side of the isthmus.
In Classical times, the Prespa region formed part of ancientLynkestis, and the lakes were called Little and Great Brygeis. In the 10th century, theTsar Samuel built the fortress and church ofSt. Achillius on an island called Agios Achillios in the Small Prespa Lake, on the Greek side of the border. The biggest island in the Great Prespa Lake, within North Macedonia, is calledGolem Grad ("Large Town"), and Snake Island (Zmiski Ostrov). The other islandMal Grad ("Small Town", in Albania) is the site of a ruined 14th century monastery dedicated toSt. Peter. Today, both islands are uninhabited.
Because Great Prespa Lake sits in limestone country about 150m aboveLake Ohrid, which lies only about 10 km (6 miles) to the west, the only outlets for its waters are through underground channels in thekarst and emerge fromsprings which feed streams running into Lake Ohrid.[5]
In the 1970s, thecommunist regime in Albania diverted theDevoll River feeding the Little Prespa to irrigate agricultural lands in theKorçë area, contributing to the depletion of the lake's surface area from 450 hectares to at least 20 hectares by 2024, with the lost area either drying out or converted into swampland. The Great Prespa also saw its surface area decrease by seven percent and its volume reduced by half from 1984 to 2020.[6]
For many years, the Greek part of the Prespa Lakes region was an underpopulated, military sensitive area which required special permission for outsiders to visit. It saw fierce fighting during theGreek Civil War and much of the local population subsequently emigrated to escape endemic poverty and political strife. The region remained little developed until the 1970s, when it began to be promoted as a tourist destination. With an abundance of rare fauna and flora, the area was declared a Transnational Park in 2000. In 1999 the Society for the Protection of Prespa received theRamsar Wetland Conservation Award for its conservation efforts regarding the Lake PrespaRamsar site, and was eventually included on 3 July 2013.
In 2018, Great Prespa Lake was the setting for the signing of thePrespa Agreement, intended to resolve theMacedonia naming dispute by renaming the Republic of Macedonia toNorth Macedonia.[7] The agreement was signed on 17 June 2018 in a high-level ceremony at the Greek border village ofPsarades on the lake, by the two foreign ministersNikola Dimitrov (of the Republic of Macedonia) andNikos Kotzias (ofGreece) and in the presence of the respective prime ministers,Zoran Zaev andAlexis Tsipras.[8] After the ceremony, Tsipras and Zaev crossed over the border to North Macedonia's side of the lake for lunch at the village ofOteševo, in a highly symbolic move that marked the first time a Greek prime minister ever entered the Republic of Macedonia since it declared independence in 1991.[9]
^Talevski, T.; Milosevic, D.; Maric, D.; Petrovic, D.; Talevska, M.; Talevska, A. (2009). "Biodiversity of Ichthyofauna from Lake Prespa, Lake Ohrid and Lake Skadar".Biotechnology & Biotechnological Equipment.23 (sup1). Informa UK Limited:400–404.doi:10.1080/13102818.2009.10818449.ISSN1310-2818.S2CID84541133.
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