Greece · Western Greece

Lake Amvrakia

Directions

Λίμνη Αμβρακία

Lake Amvrakia, or Ambracia, is a long freshwater lake in a tectonic and karst depression between Agrinio and Amfilochia, north-west of Lake Ozeros and west of Mount Thyamos. It is about 14 km long and up to about 40 m deep, and it is a Natura 2000 site.

How it formed

Its level moves from year to year with the karst groundwater, summer evaporation and irrigation, and a long drought and the draining of the shallow northern basin, now cut off by the embankment of the national road, have reduced it greatly.

Nature

Reed beds and waterside trees have grown up in the north since the water was lowered, while strong changes in level keep them out of the south. Night herons, squacco herons, pygmy cormorants and grebes breed here, little egrets stop on migration, and wintering ducks, geese, great egrets and slender-billed gulls also use the lake. The snail Pseudobithynia ambrakis lives nowhere else. Fields reach almost to the east shore, and water levels, poaching and fishing nets are the main threats. Heron colonies are very sensitive to disturbance.

Visit

Swimming

No reliable information

Tips

The lake is reached by rural roads from Agrinio, in about an hour, and the national road crosses it. Parking is informal. Spring and autumn are the most pleasant times, with migrants in spring; summer is hot and full of insects. Bring binoculars, and keep away from heron colonies.