Lake Marathon

The Marathon Lake (Greek Limni MARATHONOS Λίμνη Μαραθώνος also Limni Marathóna Λίμνη Μαραθώνα ) is a reservoir near the Greek city of Marathon in Attica, near the capital Athens. In the lake the water runs Charadros and Varnavas are mainly accumulated and used mainly to supply water to the city of Athens.

The water in the lake

At the height of the water overflow the dam, the lake has an area of 2.45 square kilometers, its maximum depth is 54 meters. With an average rainfall of 580 millimeters per year annually will be 14.4 million cubic meters from a catchment area of ​​118 square kilometers from the lake. The maximum storage capacity is 41 million cubic meters. Due to the overflow can flow 520 cubic meters of water per second.

The dam

The gravity dam of Marathon Lake is made of concrete and is the only one of its kind worldwide clad with Pentelic marble, a rock variety, which was also used in the construction of the Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis in Athens. Their height is from the foot to the crown 54 meters. On foot it is 28 meters wide and 4.5 meters at the crown. About the Crown performs a car road that can be traveled in only one direction but. The bottleneck is controlled by a traffic light system.

Architectural History

After the Greco- Turkish War (1919-1922) many Greek -born inhabitants of Asia Minor had to leave their homeland and migrated to Greece from. Especially around Athens around the population grew too strong and consequently the demand for water. Thus, it was built by an American company in 1926 to 1929, the reservoir at Marathon, which should bear the brunt of the water supply of Athens from its start in 1931 until 1959. In 1959, additional water from Yliki Lake in Boeotia was introduced, from 1981 by the Mornos reservoir from the Middle Greek Phocis.