LARNAKA SALT LAKE

This lake complex(Αλυκή Λάρνακας/Aliki Larnakas, Larnaca Salt Lake) consists of four small saltwater lakes totaling 11 km2 in area. Famous for its flamingos, it is a favorite walking spot for locals and nature-loving tourists. Less vast than the salt lake of Akrotiri (Limassol), it is nevertheless the only site of the island registered with the Ramsar convention on the protection of wetlands of international importance. The largest of the four lakes of Larnaca, Aliki (8 km2), offers an enchanting setting to the tekké Hala Sultan. Exploited for its salt since the Antiquity, it constituted the first wealth of the ancient city of Kition, then gave birth, during the Byzantine period, to the village of sauniers of Vyzakia, on the site of the current tekké. Today, its calm blue waters form a kind of lagoon of 4 km length between Larnaka and its airport. Legend has it that it was Saint Lazarus who transformed a field of vines into a salt lake to punish the owner who had refused him a bunch of grapes. Evoking a salt floe when it dries up in summer, the lake of Larnaka reactivates in winter, attracting an important fauna, notably pink flamingos, swans and many species of ducks. It is indeed outside the tourist period that the walk is the most interesting, when migratory birds come to nest. But each season brings its own surprises and discoveries with, all year round, superb sunsets.