Lake Dystos

History

Above the lake rises Kastri, a steep marble hill, with the remains of ancient Dystos, which flourished in the Classical and Hellenistic periods. In the 4th century BC it became a walled city, with thick polygonal walls, eleven towers and a single gate on the east, flanked by bastions. Inside are houses built into the slope, storerooms and a “Great House” with a courtyard and columned halls; rock-cut sarcophagi lie in the cemeteries at the foot of the hill.

People tried to drain the lake even in antiquity. A Classical inscription found in Chalkida records a contract between the contractor Chaerephanes and 230 citizens of Eretria to lead its water away through underground channels, shafts and pipes into fissures in the rock.

Nature

The lake is shallow and freshwater, largely covered by reeds, and is a Special Protection Zone and a bird sanctuary. Water taken for farming and for a nearby cement plant has been drying it up, and in recent years much of the old lake bed has been dry.