Explore Crete island

Lake Kournas - Crete, GREECE

Kournas is the name of a village and nearby lake on the island of Crete, Greece. It is in the Apokoronas region of Chania Prefecture close to the border with Rethymno Prefecture, 47 km from the town of Chania. Kournas is a fairly large village perched on a hill overlooking the lake. It is in the Georgioupoli municipality, not far from the town of the same name. A working village which has seen less depopulation than some of its neighbours, Kournas is known for its pottery and its popular taverna, Kali Kardia. The taverna's seats are largely in the road - it is popular for its specialities of 'kokoretsi' (grilled offal) and 'galaktoboureko' (custard and orange tart).
Crete's only freshwater lake, Lake Kournas, is relatively large, with a perimeter of 3.5 km. The lake used to be called 'Korisia' after ancient 'Korion', a city thought to be in the area with a temple to Athena. The lake Kournas reportedly used to be full of eels but now is better known for its terrapins and tourism. Tavernas and pedalo rental shops line part of the shore. Overall, however, the lake retains its beauty, the White Mountains reflected in the mirror-like waters. The width, at the point where the landing stage is built, is about 800m and the water is of a quality to have caused no ill effects to the writer when he swam across

The Myth of Lake Kournas
Now, within the sinful village of Kournas, the prettiest dame of all was the daughter of the priest and the last remaining virgin in the region. The sinfullness amongst the families was taking over their daily lives, until one day God decided enough was enough. He sent torrential rains to flood the valley around Kournas to free the area of Kournas of this sinning. The purity of the priests daughter saved her soul. Her soul was released to take care of the wildlife in an around the shores of lake Kournas.
The Kournas myth continues to hold the belief that every night at midnight, she raises up from the waters of the only fresh water lake on Crete, with her long hair flowing over her body to feed the goldfish, which obviously must also be raising out of the water, perhaps the heat of the sun has something to do with all this? To keep the area around Lake Kournas Chania pure of sins today, it has been decided that no motorised transport be allowed to traverse the lake. The Lady of Kournas lake must not be contaminated. So now when you visit this beautiful area near Chania on Crete, you can see strange looking pedaloes crossing in every direction, looking for the leaping goldfish and the sleeping beauty who only comes out at midnight, very few people have actually reported seeing  them, only to be later arrested for hallucinating