Lake Vouliagmeni

Lake Vouliagmeni at the coastal resort of Vouliagmeni, fifteen kilometres south of central Athens, is a mysterious brackish lake fed by underground currents percolating through the limestone body of Mount Hymettus, whose water temperature remains a constant 22 to 29 degrees Celsius year-round and whose naturally mild radioactivity and chloride mineral content have been prescribed by Greek physicians for skin conditions, rheumatic complaints, and recovery from orthopaedic injuries since the mid-twentieth century. The lake's extraordinary emerald-green water, its unusual mineral composition, and the colony of small grey mullet that nibble dead skin from bathers' feet in a natural fish therapy practice that long predated the commercial pedicure fish spas of Southeast Asia, create a bathing experience of remarkable peculiarity. The dramatic limestone cliff that overhangs the lake's western shore, the proximity to the Athenian Riviera, and the therapeutic mineral properties of a lake whose underground connections to the sea remain partially unexplained make Vouliagmeni one of the Mediterranean's most scientifically fascinating natural spa destinations.