The Landscape
Like all environments, the landscape surrounding Butrint has changed over thousands of years. Today Lake Butrint is 2 km from the sea and connected to the coast by the narrow Vivari Channel.
Butrint has not always looked like this. Three thousand years ago Lake Butrint was part of the sea and formed a large coastal bay. Since then sediment from the Bistrice and Pavllas Rivers have filled the bay and formed the Vurgu and Vrina Plains. As a result the coastline has retreated gradually west. By the Roman period, in the first century AD, the alluvial plain was sufficient well developed to allow the Romans to expand Butrint from its main fortified hill site south, and to build a large suburb on the plain. However, with frequent changes to the water level, sometimes as a result of earthquakes, the area has always been prone to flooding.
However, in the second half of the last century, the communist regime undertook major works to drain the land so it could be used for agriculture. In 1958 the Bistrice River was removed from the north of Lake Butrint and diverted straight into the sea. The Pavllas River, which once ran through the middle of the Vrina Plain, was canalised along the foot of the Korafi Hills and diverted into the Bay of Butrint. The marshy areas of the plain were kept dry by a system of ditches and pumps. Co-operative villages were set up in Ksamili, Shėn Dėlli, Vrina and Xarra to house new farming communities on the plain. On the Ksamili peninsula, Mediterranean maquis and woodland were cleared to make way for citrus and olive groves.
Since the collapse of the communist regime, and with it the collective farming, villagers have returned to small-scale agriculture. The drainage system is no longer fully functional, leading to a slow regeneration of the wetlands and an increasing number of species especially wintering birds coming to roost and feed on the flooded plain.
Lake Butrint is surrounded by three ranges of mountains and hills: Mount Mile (824 m) to the east, Mount Sotirės (232 m) to the west and the Korafi Hills (268 m) to the south.
- Landscape and monuments around Butrint
- The Landscape
- Korafi Hills and Cape Stillo
- QTVR of Cape Stillo
- Malathrea and Ēiflik Church
- Ēuka e Aitoit and Mount Mile
- North of Butrint
Mountain tea, Sideritis Roeserii, is a plant traditionally gathered, brewed and drunk for health benefits.
- Research confirms that Sideritis contains molecules with a powerful anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory action.
- In Albania it is often brewed and drunk as a remedy for the common cold.
- In spring, early summer and autumn the hillside pastures are covered in wild herbs and flowers; while autumn is traditionally the time to gather sage, mint and thyme on the hillsides and lower mountain slopes.
