lake
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...
and
reservoir
A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation.
Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...
in the north-west of
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 ...
. The second largest
artificial lake
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...
in Bulgaria (after the
Iskar Reservoir
The Iskar Reservoir (язовир „Искър“) is the largest reservoir in Bulgaria. Situated on the Iskar River, it provides two-third of the water for the capital Sofia, and also produces hydroelectricity.
The reservoir has a total volume ...
), and also in the wider
Balkan Peninsula
The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...
, it is one of the biggest in
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
.
Collecting the waters of the rivers
Ogosta
The Ogosta ( , Latin: ''Augusta''), is the largest river in Northwestern Bulgaria, a right tributary of the Danube. It originates at Chiprovska Mountain, a 2,168 meters high section of the Western Balkan Mountains, at an altitude of about 1,760 me ...
, Burzia, and Zlatitsa, the lake begins only 600 meters to the south-west of the edge of Montana city, and its surface is some 60 meters above the ground level of the city. Its water catchment area covers 948 km,2 and the area of the lake itself is 24 hectares. The average water volume is 384 Mm,3 while the maximum volume is 506Mm3.
According to the ''
Cambridge Ancient History
''The Cambridge Ancient History'' is a multi-volume work of ancient history from Prehistory to Late Antiquity, published by Cambridge University Press. The first series, consisting of 12 volumes, was planned in 1919 by Irish historian J. B. Bur ...
'', the name "Ogosta" may represent the
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
name Augusta.John Bagnall Bury et al., ''The Cambridge Ancient History: the Assyrian Empire'' (Cambridge University Press, 1925, reprinted 1991), p. 595
The construction of the dam which created the lake took twenty years and was completed in 1986. For the project two villages were flooded, Jivovtsi and Kalimanitsa, and their inhabitants were found new homes in nearby
Berkovitsa
Berkovitsa ( ) is a town and ski resort in northwestern Bulgaria. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Berkovitsa Municipality, Montana Province and is close to the town of Varshets. , it had a population of 13,917.Lom, but by 1989 only half of the necessary infrastructure of water-pipes had been laid down, and the irrigation scheme was never completed. Now the waters of the lake are used instead to generate electricity, and two hydro-electric power-stations called “Kosharnik” and “Ogosta” have been built below the dam.
In 1999 the lake was designated for commercial fishing and it now holds a wide variety of fish, including
carp
The term carp (: carp) is a generic common name for numerous species of freshwater fish from the family (biology), family Cyprinidae, a very large clade of ray-finned fish mostly native to Eurasia. While carp are prized game fish, quarries and a ...
,
carassius
''Carassius '' is a genus in the ray-finned fish family Cyprinidae. Most species in this genus are commonly known as '' crucian carps'', though that term often refers specifically to '' C. carassius''. The most well known species is the goldfish ...
,
rudd
''Scardinius'' is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces, Eurasian minnows and related species. The fishes in this genus are commonly called rudds. Locally, the name "rudd" without ...
perch
Perch is a common name for freshwater fish from the genus ''Perca'', which belongs to the family Percidae of the large order Perciformes. The name comes from , meaning the type species of this genus, the European perch (''P. fluviatilis'') ...
,
nase
' (from the Ancient Greek roots (''khondros'') 'lump' + (''stoma'') 'mouth' = 'lump-mouth') is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Leuciscidae. They are commonly known as nases, although this term is also used locally to denote particu ...
,
barbus
''Barbus'' is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae. The type species of ''Barbus'' is the common barbel, first described as ''Cyprinus barbus'' and now named ''Barbus barbus''. ''Barbus'' is the namesake genus of the subfamily Ba ...