Bulgaria · Black Sea Coast

Varna Lake

Directions

Варненско езеро

Lake Varna is the deepest liman, or coastal lake, on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast and the largest by volume, divided from the sea by a strip of sand. It has an elongated shape, with high, steep, wooded south shores and gently sloping north ones. It formed in a river valley when the sea level rose near the end of the Pleistocene. Its deepest parts are covered with thick mud rich in hydrogen sulphide, and there are large deposits of medicinal mud. Several rivers flow into it, among them the Devnya and the Provadiyska, and the port of Varna lies on its shore.

History

People have lived around the lake since the Late Palaeolithic. At the end of the 5th millennium BC, eight settlements stood here on dense groups of wooden piles, now under water, and thirteen more are known from the Early Bronze Age. From the same world came the Varna necropolis of about 4400–4200 BC, with its gold; the finds are in the city’s Archaeological Museum.

In the 1970s the lake was converted into a ship canal to the sea, spanned by the Asparuhov Bridge, opened in 1976, about 50 m high.

Nature

The lake is part of an Important Bird Area, with reed beds on the north shore, and it is the only wetland between the Shabla and Durankulak lakes and the Burgas lakes. Thousands of soaring birds pass overhead on the Via Pontica in spring and autumn, including up to 50,000 white storks, and Dalmatian pelicans come each winter.

Gallery

3 photos

Photo: ShockD · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Spasimir Pilev · CC BY-SA 4.0

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Visit

Getting there

Nearest settlement: Varna

Swimming

No reliable information

Tips

The north shore is shaped by industry and a couple of small ports, while the south shore is high, steep and wooded. You can walk across the Asparuhov Bridge for wide views over the lake and the coast. Dawn brings mirror-like reflections and few people.

Guided day tours from Varna follow the lakes west to the Yatata protected area, the main stop for birds, some going on to the Roman mosaics at Devnya. Spring and autumn are the best seasons.