The most beautiful natural sites to discover Debar

Located 580 m above sea level, this artificial lake (Дебарско Езеро/Debarsko Ezero, Liqeni i Dibrës) borders the town of Debar and covers an area of 13.2 ^km2. Also known as Špilje (Шпиље), it is the country's largest artificial lake after Tikveš and Mavrovo. Created in 1968, it stretches 22 km from Dolno Kosovraci (Banishta in Albanian) in the north to the hamlet of Drenok in the south. In the north, its widest section is 2.5 km long, with a maximum depth of 92 m. The waters of the country's second largest river, the Black Drin, are held back here by the Špilje dam. Located 5 km south-west of Debar, the dam stands 102 m high. It is used to irrigate the region and powers a hydroelectric plant that produces an average of 300 million kilowatt-hours. Popular with fishermen for its abundance of fish, the lake also receives water from the Radika River to the north. This is where the only structure crossing the lake, the Melnički Bridge, is located. Built at the same time as the dam, between 1966 and 1968, it is 368 m long and allows the R 1202 road to cross from one shore to the other. The western bank is the most developed, with the town of Debar and the dam. The eastern bank includes several hamlets and villages belonging to the municipality of Centar Župa, where the majority of the population is Turkish. To the southeast, away from the lake, lies Kodžadžik, the birthplace of Atatürk's father, the founder of modern Turkey.