By Robert Schrader
Weird and Amazing Travel Expert, about.com
If you spend even a few minutes Googling "gorgeous beaches" or "beautiful water"—and let's face it, if you didn't take to the Internet to cool your wanderlust, you wouldn't be here—you'll realize there's plenty of competition, all around the world.
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Do you head to Southeast Asian pearls like Phuket or Myanmar's Mergui Archipelago, or to the beautiful (but sinking) Maldives? Do you snorkel the reefs of Belize and the Bahamas, or skip the Caribbean for the Red Sea beaches of Egypt or even Sudan?
One
option many people forget in general is the Mediterranean and,
specifically, Greece. Even travelers who come to Greece often head
straight to the Cyclades, the island group that includes iconic Mykonos
and Santorini.
I have two words that explain why you shouldn't do that: Melissani Lake.
Melissani Lake's Geology
Actually
four words, if you add "Melissani Cave" to what I've just said. That's
because Greece's Melissani Lake, which may just be home to the clearest
waters in the world, happens to sit inside a cave, a complicated
arrangement, although not one that's unique to Greece.
Geologically, Melissani Lake and Cave are quite similar to the cenotes you find in Mexico's Yucatán peninsula.
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Effectively,
Melissani Lake is an aquifer: The water inside the lake is seawater
that has been sucked into the cave, which filters it and makes it even
more beautiful and transparent—and Greece's seas, if you haven't
noticed, are already quite splendid, clear and blue. It's not quite
fresh by the time it enters the cave and is technically still brackish,
however, so consider this before taking a drink! The water that exits
the cave heads back to the sea, coming out at Fridi Beach.
Physically,
Melissani Lake's surface is about 60 feet below the surface of the
ground outside it, and features prominent stalactites, which are
relatively ordinary in appearance when you compare them to the lake's
extraordinarily clear water. Geologists estimate the cave to be around
20,000 years old, which is relatively young as geological things go.
Melissani Lake's Mythology
You
might read online that Melissani Lake was "discovered" in 1951, but
that's only as far as us modern people are concerned. The lake is
mentioned in Greek mythology and, in fact, had an important place in it:
It's known as the cave of the Nymphs, female spirits who embodied a sacred space somewhere between man and God, a space you might feel trapped in when you visit Melissani Lake—read on to learn how to do that.
How to Visit Melissani Lake
Melissani Lake is located on the island of Kefalonia, which is in Greece's Ionian Islands group,
located just to the west of the Greek mainland about an hour's flight
from Athens. Alternatively, you can reach Kefalonia by ferry from
Piraeus, Athens' port, and several other ports of call, both on the
Greek mainland and within the Ionian Islands.
Melissani Lake is
officially "open" to tourists from May through October and during
daylight hours on days that fall during those months. You can take a
taxi (or drive your own car or motorbike) to Sami, the nearest town to
whre the cave is located, then access the inside of the cave
independently, thanks to stairs that have been built. Keep in mind that
you will need to hire a boat and boat captain if you want to see down
into its clear water from above.
Alternatively, you can take an
organized tour to Melissani Lake with one of the dozens of tour
companies that operate on Kefalonia. The easiest way to organize a tour
to Melissani Lake would be to do so through your hotel, although you can
also check find dozens of tour companies on a stroll through Kefalonia
village.
