Lake Varna ( bg, Варненско езеро, ) is the largest by volume and deepest liman or lake along the

Bulgarian Black Sea Coast The Bulgarian Black Sea Coast (), also known as the Bulgarian Riviera, covers the entire eastern bound of Bulgaria stretching from the Romanian Black Sea resorts in the north to European Turkey in the south, along 378 km of coast ...

, divided from the sea by a 2 km-wide strip of sand and having an area of 19 km², maximal depth 19 m, and a volume of 166 million m³. The lake has an elongated shape, its south shores are high, steep and wooded, and the north slant. Lake Varna was formed in a river valley by the raising of sea level near the end of the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

. Its bottom is covered by a thick

alluvium Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

slime Slime may refer to: Biology * Slime mold, a broad term often referring to roughly six groups of Eukaryotes * Biofilm, an aggregate of microorganisms in which cells adhere to each other and/or to a surface * Slimy (fish), also known as the pony ...

and

hydrogen sulphide Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless chalcogen-hydride gas, and is poisonous, corrosive, and flammable, with trace amounts in ambient atmosphere having a characteristic foul odor of rotten eggs. The unde ...

mud in the deepest parts; there are large deposits of medicinal ''fango'' (mineral mud). A number of rivers pour into the lake, including

Devnya Devnya ( bg, Девня ) is a town in Varna Province, Northeastern Bulgaria, located about 25 km away to the west from the city of Varna and The Black Sea Coast. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Devnya Municipality. As of ...

and Provadiyska that empty near the western shores of

Lake Beloslav Lake Beloslav ( bg, Белославско езеро) is a liman, which connected by a navigation canal with Lake Varna. Before the canal was built the lake was freshwater, but now the water is brackish. The rivers Devnya and Provadiyska flow i ...

, which is connected to Lake Varna. Until the 20th century, fresh water from the lake emptied into the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

through the Devnya River, but following the construction of the modern Port of Varna East (and the subsequent draining of the river), 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 Seawater, or salt water, is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% (35 g/L, 35 ppt, 600 mM). This means that every kilogram (roughly one liter by volume) of seawater has approx ...

into the lake, which became

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

. In 1976, when a new 12 m-deep canal crossed by the

Asparuhov most The Asparuhov most ( bg, Аспарухов мост) or Asparuhov Bridge is a bridge in Varna on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria. It connects the Asparuhovo district to the rest of the city over the canals between the Black Sea and Lake Varn ...

began operating, the lake was dredged along the stream. Another navigable canal to the west lead through the neighboring Lake Beloslav to the Port of Varna West and the Railroad Ferry Terminal. A couple of smaller specialized ports dot Lake Varna's north shore, notably the Port of LesPort and the Port of Varna Thermal Power Plant. Industrialization came at the cost of the lake's reputation of a rich fishing ground that had sustained human settlements for nearly 100,000 years. The

Varna Necropolis The Varna Necropolis ( bg, Варненски некропол), or Varna Cemetery, is a burial site in the western industrial zone of Varna (approximately half a kilometre from Lake Varna and 4 km from the city centre), internationally co ...

, where the oldest gold treasure in the world was found, is located near the north shore, while the city of

Varna Varna may refer to: Places Europe *Varna, Bulgaria, a city in Bulgaria **Varna Province **Varna Municipality ** Gulf of Varna **Lake Varna **Varna Necropolis *Vahrn, or Varna, a municipality in Italy *Varniai, a city in Lithuania * Varna (Šaba ...

is situated at the lake's eastern extremity. Also along the north shore are the villages of

Kazashko Kazashko ( Bulgarian: Казашко) is a village in north-eastern Bulgaria. It is located in the municipality of Varna, Varna Province Varna Province ( bg, Област Варна, translit=Oblast Varna), formerly known as Varna okrug, is a ...

and Ezerovo, and the villages of Zvezditsa and Konstantinovo overlook the lake from the southern heights.

References

* {{cite web , url=http://varna.info.bg/varna_lake.htm , title=Grad Varna — Varnensko ezero , publisher=Varna.info.bg , accessdate=2007-04-09 , language = Bulgarian

External links

Panorama photo of Kazashko village on the shores of Lake Varna
Apple QTVR
Photos of Varna Lake

Estuaries of the Black Sea Bulgarian Black Sea Coast Varna, Bulgaria Landforms of Varna Province