At
the northeastern corner of Greece and nearly 20-km from Alexandroupolis
at the crossroad between East and West, North and South, the river
Evros is forming an ecosystem of international importance, according
to the Ramsar contract, known as the Evros delta. Evros is one
of the biggest rivers in the Balkans with its 430-km length, from
which the 203-km are forming the natural borderline between Greece
and Turkey.
According
to Ploutarchos, the initial name of the river was Romvos. Today
the river is called Evros. Evros was the son of the Thracian king
named Kassandros this is from where the river has its name. Evros
was slandered from his stepmother, Damasipi, because he refused
her love.
 After
that Evros was chased from his father because he believed Damasipi,
Evros was so disappointed and jumped into the river, since then
the river is carrying his name. The story of the despaired purity,
which is hunted and is trying to survive in our nature, after
this entire story is familiar thanks to the myth of Hypolytos.
The
archimandrite N. Vafiadis is telling us another name of the river,
he is naming it Maritsa, according to his theory the name might
comes from the ancient Thracian name Marissos or Maris, the Thracians
used to call the rivers with this name because of the shimmering
of the surfaces, or from the Slavic name Moritsi or Moravitsi
or from the Indo- European word mar, which means lake or sea.
The
sources of the river are located on Skomio, a mountain that is
close to Sofia. The river is flowing to the southeast and is entering
Greece, a small part of it, from Ormenio until a village called
Dilofo, is forming the natural borderline between Greece and Bulgaria.
From this region on and until the village Marasia, where the river
is entering Turkey and from the village Nea Vissa until the rivers’
outfall it is forming the natural borderline between Greece and
Turkey.
 The
tributaries of Evros are Ardas, Erithropotamos and Erginis. The
river Evros is flowing into the Aegean Sea and at its coast it
is forming an extended Delta. The are of the delta is covering
188.000 sq.meters, from which 150.000 sq.meters belong to Greece.
From those, 100.000 sq.meters are forming the area that is included
in the Ramsar contract. The are is considered as one of the most
important hydrotopes worldwide.
The
valley of the river is formed from several ecosystems that expand
from Nea Vissa until the sea, here you can find a large variety
of biotopes with a rich flora and fauna, which was created from
the aquatic systems of the river and its tributaries and from
the eastern endings of the Rodopi mountain range. At the southern
part of this valley, there where the river is branching, the delta
is forming.
The
delta of the river was formed 10.000 years ago, the melting of
the glaciers had as result the rising of the sea-level. After
that the sea literally drowned the north Aegean coast and inundating
the low land of the delta. This alteration reduced the grade and
the flowing speed of the river the result of this phenomenon was
the change of the rivers “behavior”.
Many
times the river was flowing over its main riverbed and created
new ones, it left materials behind during its flowing and also
when the waters reached its outfall. Simultaneously the wave and
current activities of the sea were increasing in the coastal area
of the delta, as a result of these activities were the dispersion
of the material in this area.In the summertime when the river
waters are reducing, the seawaters, because of the small hypsometric
difference from the sea level and the calmly flowing of the river
waters, are insinuating the riverbed and the artificial canals.
The
result of these natural activities is the forming of various coasts,
small islands, lagoons, swamps, dunes and many other small biotopes
in the coastal area of the delta, all these facts are characterizing
a developing ecosystem.
In
the winter sometimes the river is flowing over its bed forming
smaller or bigger aquatic areas by inundating the southeastern
part of the delta. At the Turkish side is the Gala lake our ancient
forefathers used to call the lake Stendoritida, while at the Greek
side you can see the lake of the water nymph and several other
smaller lakes, such as the Tsekouri, Skepi, Spitia and Gyneka
lakes.
|
