The

Korçë Korçë (; sq-definite, Korça) is the List of cities and towns in Albania, eighth most populous city of Albania and the seat of Korçë County and Korçë Municipality. The total population of the city is 51,152 and 75,994 of Korçë municipal ...

Plain () or Korça Basin is a small, fertile, intermountain basin in southeastern

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

. In its southern side is found the Kamenica Tumulus.

Geology

The basin is a major N-S trending – still active -

graben In geology, a graben () is a depression (geology), depressed block of the Crust (geology), crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults. Etymology ''Graben'' is a loan word from German language, German, meaning 'ditch' or 't ...

structure of the

Dinarides The Dinaric Alps (), also Dinarides, are a mountain range in Southern and Southcentral Europe, separating the continental Balkan Peninsula from the Adriatic Sea. They stretch from Italy in the northwest through Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Her ...

located at the border of Northern Macedonia and S-E Albania. The structure was formed during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

and stretches from

lake Ohrid Lake Ohrid is a lake which straddles the mountainous border between the southwestern part of North Macedonia and eastern Albania. It is one of Europe's deepest and oldest lakes, with a unique aquatic ecosystem of worldwide importance, with more th ...

Ersekë Ersekë ( sq-definite, Erseka), is a town and a former municipality in southeastern Albania. At the 2015 local government reform it became a subdivision and the seat of the municipality Kolonjë. Founded in the 17th century, Erseka was the seat o ...

via Korçë.

Geography

The plain has a surface of about 300 km². Its length is about 35 km and its maximal width is about 16 km. In the southernmost edge the absolute elevation is 880 m above sea level, gently sloping to 815 m in the area of the former Maliq Marsh in the north-western area of the basin. The plain is surrounded by highlands reaching altitudes of 2000 m. The basin is drained by two rivers, Devoll and Dunavec. Devoll river crosses the northern area of the plain flowing from east to west, passing through the Maliq marshes. ''Dunavec River'' crosses the basin in south-north direction joining the Devoll near the town of

Maliq Maliq ( sq-definite, Maliqi), formerly known as Malik ( sq-definite, Maliki), is a town and a municipality in Korçë County of eastern Albania. It is the smaller of two cities in the district, the other being Korçë, southeast of Maliq. The cu ...

Climate

As of the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

, Korçë Plain falls under the periphery of the

warm-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

(Csb) zone with an average annual temperature of . Average rainfall is about 720 mm/year of which about 70% falls in the winter season.

Agriculture

The plain is agriculturally important enabling the cultivation of summer crops such as sugarbeets, potatoes, maize and fruit trees using irrigation resources.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Korce Plain Plains of Albania Geography of Korçë County