Lake Varna

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lake Varna (Bulgarian: Варненско езеро, Varnensko ezero) is the largest by volume and deepest liman or lake along the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, divided from the sea by a 2 km-wide strip of sand and having an area of 17 km² and a volume of 165,000,000 m³.

The lake has an elongated shape, its south shores being high and steep and the north slant. Lake Varna was formed by the raising of sea level near the end of the Pleistocene. Its bottom is covered by a thick alluvium of slime and hydrogen sulphide mud in the deepest parts. A number of rivers pour into the lake, including Devnya River and Provadiyska that empty near the western shores of Lake Beloslav, which is connected to Lake Varna.

Until the 20th century, water from the lake poured into the Black Sea through Devnya River, but following the establishment of the Port of Varna and the river's draining, a canal was dug through the strip of sand between the sea and the lake between 1906 and 1909, which led to the lake's level dropping by 1.40 m and the incursion of sea water into the lake. In 1976, when a new 12 m-deep canal crossed by the Asparuhov most began operating, the lake was dredged along the stream.

The Varna Necropolis, where the oldest gold treasure in the world was found, is located near the northern shores, while the large city of Varna is situated at the lake's eastern extremity.