Batak Reservoir () is located in the

Rhodope Mountains The Rhodopes (; , ; , ''Rodopi''; ) are a mountain range in Southeastern Europe, and the largest by area in Bulgaria, with over 83% of its area in the southern part of the country and the remainder in Greece. Golyam Perelik is its highest peak ...

of southern

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

and is among the largest in the country. It was constructed to provide electricity generation and irrigation as a major part of the

Batak Hydropower Cascade The Batak Hydroelectric Cascade (, translit. ''Batashki Vodnosilov Pat'') is situated in the Pazardzhik Province, southern Bulgaria and is among the first hydroelectric cascades in the country. Inaugurated on 6 September 1959, it includes seven re ...

. Rich in fish and situated in a scenic mountain region, the reservoir attracts many tourists and anglers. The resort of Tsigov Chark has been constructed on its southwestern shores.

Geography

Batak Reservoir lies at an altitude of 1,108 m some 4 km west of the town of

Batak Batak is a collective term used to identify a number of closely related Austronesian peoples, Austronesian ethnic groups predominantly found in North Sumatra, Indonesia, who speak Batak languages. The term is used to include the Karo people ( ...

and is named after the settlement. It is the source of the river

Matnitsa The Matnitsa () is a river in southern Bulgaria, a right tributary river Chepinska reka, itself a right tributary of the Maritsa. Its length is 16 km. The river takes its source from the Batak Reservoir at an altitude of 1,105 m in th ...

, a right tributary of the

Chepinska reka The Chepinska reka (), or Chepino river, is a 83 km-long river in southern Bulgaria, a right tributary of the river Maritsa. Geography The river takes its source as Ribna reka (''Fish river'') at an altitude of 1,990 m, about 800&nb ...

of the

Maritsa Maritsa or Maritza ( ), also known as Evros ( ) and Meriç ( ), is a river that runs through the Balkans in Southeast Europe. With a length of ,

river basin. Administratively, it is in Batak Municipality of

Pazardzhik Province Pazardzhik Province ( ''Oblast Pazardzhik'', former name Pazardzhik okrug) is a province in Southern Bulgaria, named after its administrative and industrial centre: the city of Pazardzhik. The territory is that is divided into 12 municipaliti ...

. The main access is via the second class II-37 road from the east, as well as the third class III-376 road, which branches off the II-37 just west of Batak and continues west along the reservoir's southern shores to Tsigov Chark and then to the town of

Rakitovo Rakitovo ( ) is a town in the Pazardzhik Province, Bulgaria. the population was 8,952. It is located in the northern part of the Rhodopi mountains at 12 km to the east of Velingrad and 7 km to the southwest of the Batak Reservoir. Th ...

and eventually

Velingrad Velingrad ( ) is a town in Pazardzhik Province, Southern Bulgaria, located at the western end of Chepino Valley, part of the Rhodope Mountains. It is the administrative center of the homonymous Velingrad Municipality and one of the most po ...

some 24 km further west. The resort of Tsigov Chark offers year-round activities, including a ski track, hiking trails, fishing, various water sports, such as water wheel riding, boating, jet skiing, etc. In the northern part of the lake near the dam is the much smaller and tranquil resting area of Danoto, and about one kilometer northeast of the dam is the small resort of St Contantine, already in Peshtera Municipality.

Dam

Batak Reservoir was constructed in 1954–1959 and has two dams. The main one, located in the northernmost part of the artificial lake, is an earthen structure with a height of 35 m and a length of 273 m. There is a trench spillway with a capacity of 14 m³/s on the left bank and a main outlet in a tunnel with a capacity of 90 m³/s on the right bank. A counter dam has been erected in the western part of the reservoir with a height of 9.5 m and a length of 363 m. Batak Reservoir has a surface area of 24 km² and a volume of 310 million m³; it is 17 km at its longest and 4 km at its widest. The reservoir is the main facility of the second level of the

(254 MW) and is the most important leveling structure in the whole cascade. It receives the water from the first level of the cascade, after being discharged from the underground Batak Hydro Power Plant further upstream, as well as water from the tributaries of the Chepinska reka south of Velingrad, the tributaries of the

Stara reka Stara is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Aleksandrów, within Piotrków County, Łódź Voivodeship, in central Poland. It lies approximately south-west of Aleksandrów, south-east of Piotrków Trybunalski, and south-east of ...

south of Batak,

Peshtera Peshtera ( , sometimes transliterated as ''Peštera'') is a town in the Rhodope Mountains, southern Bulgaria. It is located in Pazardzhik Province near the towns of Batak and Bratsigovo. The town is the third largest in the province after Paza ...

and

Bratsigovo Bratsigovo ( ) is a town in Southern Bulgaria. It is located in the foothills of the Rhodope Mountains, on the banks of the Umishka River in Pazardzhik oblast, and is close to the towns of Peshtera and Krichim. Bratsigovo Hills on Trinity Penin ...

, as well as some rivers from the Vacha basin further east. The total length of the derivation channels is 128 km, of which 51 km are tunnels. The water of the reservoir flows through a 3 km long pressure culvert to the underground Peshtera Hydro Power Plant downstream and then are utilized for the irrigation of about 450–500 km² of arable land in the

Upper Thracian Plain The Upper Thracian Plain (, ''Gornotrakiyska nizina'') constitutes the northern part of the historical region of Thrace. It is located in southern Bulgaria, between Sredna Gora mountains to the north and west, a secondary mountain chain parallel ...

Gallery

File:Изглед към остров Голака от Цигов Чарк.jpg File:Cigov chark2.jpg File:Batak Reservoir 2012 02.JPG File:Lake Batak (19693996916).jpg

Citations

References

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External links

* {{Batak Hydropower Cascade Reservoirs in Bulgaria Landforms of Pazardzhik Province Rhodope Mountains