PRESPA, LAKE

Albanian Liqeni i Presps, Macedonian Prespansko Ezero, Greek Limni Megali Prespa ("Big Prespa Lake") lake situated on the Macedonia-Albania-Greece frontier, with an elevation of 2,800 feet (853 m) above sea level and an area of 106 square miles (274 square km). Fed by underground streams, it is linked by subterranean channels with Lake Ohrid. Most of the lake is in Macedonia. Little developed until after 1945, in the 1970s Prespa became a tourist and fishing centre. South of Lake Prespa, or Limni Megali Prespa, is Limni Mikr Prespa ("Little Prespa Lake") on the Greece-Albania border. St. Achilius, a tiny island in Mikr Prespa, was an early capital of the Bulgarian tsar Samuel (10th century).