Nov 5, 2023
Lake Karla, known in antiquity as Boibeis, after its draining in 1962. This enormous project, aiming at the expansion of farmland and the eradication of illnesses such as malaria (caused by the formation of swamps that was also the result of bad human intervention and not the lake itself), was soon proven a big mistake. The lake was restored to a 20% of its original size in 2018, after 15 years of work. The original surface area of the ancient lake was 180 km2 . The new one was 37 km2. After the extreme rainfalls and floods of September 2023, the lake reached 172 km2 within two days, and thus it now has returned to its original size, surpassing Lake Trichonida as the previously largest lake of Greece.
Photo by Takis Tloupas.