Photo: GSalaveris · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Vitaly · CC BY-SA 3.0
Lake Marathon, or the Marathon Reservoir, is a man-made water-supply reservoir formed by the Marathon Dam, at the junction of the Charadros and Varnavas torrents near the town of Marathon. It was the main water supply of Athens from 1931, when it began to work, until 1959, when the water of Lake Yliki became available, and then the water of the Mornos Reservoir followed in 1981. The dam is a concrete gravity dam.
History
The dam was built from 1926 to 1929 by the American firm ULEN, to meet the demand for water in Athens after refugees arrived from Asia Minor following the Greco-Turkish War. Its outer face is white Pentelic marble, the same stone as the Parthenon, and the water tower is lined with it too. The water valves went in and the lake was filled for the first time in October 1928.
Next to the dam grew a settlement of more than 1,000 people, first for the workers. Families lived there from the 1930s until the early 1970s, and its paths, school, club and houses can still be seen.
Gallery
Visit
Getting there
Nearest settlement: Marathon
Swimming
No reliable information
Tips
The lake is about 45 km from central Athens and about ten minutes by car from the battlefield of Marathon. Regional buses run from Athens to Marathon, but public transport to the dam itself is limited and a car is the easiest way. Spring and autumn are the most pleasant times, and summer weekends bring many day-trippers. Swimming is reported not to be allowed, to protect the drinking water.
A coffee restaurant above the dam looks over the lake, and a picnic area on the south side has wide views. At the foot of the dam stands a replica of the Athenian Treasury from Delphi. The settlement’s museum opens by appointment, and a free audio tour by phone walks about 3 km through the settlement in some two hours; download it first, as the signal can be weak. The Marathon Tomb, the archaeological museum and Schinias National Park are all easy to add.
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Sources & data
- Greece's 2022 Water Framework Directive reporting to the EEA: lake (LW) and transitional (TW) water bodies, field cArea, European Environment Agency (WISE WFD), reported by Greece, 2022
- OpenStreetMap: Τεχνητή Λίμνη Μαραθώνα (relation 1712983), OpenStreetMap contributors
- Wikidata: Lake Marathon (Q1166181), Wikimedia Foundation
- English Wikipedia: Lake Marathon, Wikimedia Foundation
- All-weather getaways, Athens & Attica
- Marathon dam: life at the settlement, Clio Muse Tours
- Marathon Lake, Greeka