Fodor's Expert Review Lake Pamvotis

Despite the fact that the water level is so low (the streams that feed it are drying up) and it has become too polluted for swimming, Lake Pamvotis remains Ioannina's picturesque centerpiece. At night, youths gather with their friends to sit around the antique walls facing the lake, perhaps oblivious to the fact that it is a significant basin of biodiversity, with 170 bird species and nine amphibian species. It also has the longest rowing course in Greece—teams from all over the Balkans use it for training, while the Valkaniadia rowing championships are periodically hosted here. Legend has it that the notorious Ali Pasha drowned his son's lover (after she rejected the Pasha's advances and demands to make her his own mistress). The lake is also said to be haunted by other female victims of the tyrant, and that their spirits haunt it to this day.