Melissani Cave or Melissani Lake, also Melisani is a cave located on the island of Kefalonia, northwest of Sami, about 5 km SE of Agia Efthymia, NE of Argostoli and NW of Poros. The Ionian Sea lies to the east with the Strait of Ithaca.
Forests surrounds the cave and the mountain slope is to the west. Near
the cave is the entry to the cave with parking lots and is passed almost
in the middle of the main road linking Sami and Agia Efimia especially
to the northern part of the island.
Information
In Greek mythology, Melissani was the cave of the nymphs. The cave features a lake that are surrounded with trees and forests. The cave is located east of the mountains of Evmorfia and Agia Dynati. Tourism is common in the cave.
The cave features a sky-blue lake covered with stones at the bottom.
the depth is thin. Plants are at the door of the cave. The color of the
rocks which are stucco to honey-like brown is at the door of the cave.
The lake is also inside the cave.
The cave is 100 meters long and the lake takes about one third of its
length. It was first discovered in 1951 and was opened for the public in
1963.
Hydrogeology
Melissani cave is a typical feature of karst environment in coastal
carbonate aquifer. It forms a kind of "cenote" as described in the
Yucatan peninsula (Mexico). The vertical shaft gives access to the water
table (where you can do a round trip on a small boat!). This
groundwater is brackish, mixing between fresh water recharge inland and
sea water intruded in depth in the island. Huge karst conduits have been
explored by speleo-divers. The bay of Sami has many cenotes, with
impressive shafts, that have been inventoried in a GIS Database. The brackish water flowing through the cenotes outflows
along the sea shore, forming brackish coastal and submarine springs.
The groundwater of Melissani cave outflows at the "Fridi" beach. This
brackish water is part of a famous hydrogeological phenomena : seawater
is sucked in the west part of the island of Kefalonia, near Argotoli,
and expelled in the bay of Sami. In Argostoli, the seawater flows into sinkholes, named katavothres, where water mill turns.
