It is a wetland, the second largest in the wider area of the prefecture of Ilia. It is separated from the sea by a section of pine forest, which also bears the name “Strofilia”.
Lake Caiaphas or spa town Caiaphas is in Peloponnese and specifically in the Law of Ilia. The lake is located next to the sea, it has thermal waters, while sports activities such as water skiing take place in the waters. Administratively, it belongs to Zaharo, from which it is only five kilometers away.
It covers an area of 1500 acres, a length of 3 kilometers and a depth of 2 meters. Inside the lake there is also the islet of Agia Aikaterini and on its shores the spa town of Caiaphas.
It is a wetland, the second most important in the wider area of the prefecture of Ilia after the ecosystem of the National Wetlands Park of Kotychi Strofylias, about 50 km further north. It is separated from the sea by a section of pine forest, which also bears the name “Strofilia” as well as special formations of sand dunes. The ecosystem has suffered great damage due to garbage, illegal poaching, which has reached uncontrollable proportions, illegal logging and sports activities that take place in the lake.
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The lake is believed to have been created around the 6th century AD after a major earthquake.
Caiaphas or Caiaphas shortly before 1960 was a well-known and popular destination for therapeutic reasons. It owed its fame, mainly, to its hot baths and water, which had healing properties, but also to its unique landscape, which harmoniously combined sea, forest, lake and mountain on a wonderful scale.
Every year, visitors arrived from all parts of the country to do the treatment indicated to them, namely: hot baths and drinking thermal water. The “bathers”, as the locals called them, got there with the only means that existed at the time and that was the otomotris.
The bathing season started at the end of May and ended at the end of September.
You could classify the visitors into three categories. To the aristocrats, who preferred to stay in the three pre-war hotels that existed in Caiaphas, Arinis, Geranion and Olympia.
To those belonging to the middle class, who chose our small town, where few were comfortable in its two rudimentary hotels, Rex and International, and most in rooms for rent, which had its largest and most decent houses.
Over time, the glamor of hot baths faded, as a consequence, among other things, of the questioning and debunking of their therapeutic effects. The wonderful hotels of Caiaphas, the bathing facilities across the street, on the rocks of Lapithas, as well as everything else that was functioning smoothly on the islet of Agia Aikaterini have been left to their fate and are now languishing year by year.
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