Kouris Dam is the largest dam located along the Kouris River in the southern part of the island of Cyprus. Cyprus has approximately 180 dams, but this one is definitely the largest one, which is one of the most important for the people who live around it.
They need it not just to survive, but also, they are using the dam for recreation. At a height of 110 meters (361 feet) and a length of 550 meters (1,804 feet) it creates a lake of 3.6 square kilometers (1.4 square miles). At the time of construction, in 1984, one village and one church had to be abandoned, since they were sunk in the lake.
The Kouris Dam was finished in 1988, and it was designed by the French company SOGREAH, with some help from the Cypriot company Hydroconsult. So far, the dam has overflowed in 2004 and 2012, but with the bad policy the Government of Cyprus has about the hydrology of the country, the dam was emptied, and the volume of the water in the dam is at the minimum.
Whether the lake will continue to be as the government wants it to be, or will be it be again fully filled, the time will tell, with hope that the Ayia Napa sea monster, as the locals refer to the imaginary cryptid, will not show itself.
