About Melissani lake

Located near to Karavomilos, Melissani Lake is the most spectacular cave lake on the island. The road signs are ambiguous and the lake is nearer to Karavomilos than you would first think. Within a few hundred yards off the Sami to Agia Efimia main road. The entrance is not clearly marked. (It confused us at first anyway) You will find it located inside the shop in the car park. You know when you have got there as Buses usually block the road off!! There is a sizable parking lot so parking is not a problem.

It may be 100 + degrees F outside but in the cave it is always cool and damp. There are boats waiting to show you round the lake. The guides' descriptions of the 20,000 year old stalactites are graphic and imaginative to say the least!The cave is 100 m long with a third taken up by the lake which is 100 foot deep in places! It was officially discovered by Austrian divers and opened to the public in 1963. However, the locals were aware of it's existence much, much earlier as a shepherdess had gone missing and fallen in whilst looking for a sheep. The waters empty into the lake in Karavomilos. In 1953 during the earthquakes the cave roof fell in, creating amazing light displays on the cave walls. Between 10.30am and 1pm during July and August the sun hits the cave changing the colour of the water, the various shades of blue are then reflected off the walls. Worth the trip!

Found on the island at the entrance to the inner cave in 1951 was an ancient lantern. In the 1963 excavations, Marinatos found a clay figurine depicting the god Pan, a disc showing Pan surrounded by dancing nymphs and a fragment showing the figure of a woman in relief who is believed to be the nymph Melissanthe (from which the lake name is derived) who fell in love with Pan. Sadly she drowned in the lake when he rejected her. Exactly what she was doing in a damp dark and flooded cave in the first place, folklore does not tell us, anyway all artifacts can now been seen in the archaeological museum in Argostoli.