Matka Divers find church foundations

Divers of speleo-diving club "Vrelo" and diving club "Akvatek" found Sunday remains of foundations, believed to be of an old Macedonian church, during their underwater expedition in the waters of lake Matka near Skopje.

The campaign aimed at researching and documenting the lake bottom structure.

"Prior to the construction of the Matka dam, the so-called Road of Strength was located here, which linked Macedonia's northeast with the southwest. We wanted to locate, research and map all archaeological sites, which are now under water", said Vrelo president Kiro Angeleski.

The campaign was also environmental, with divers mapping waste locations that are set to be cleaned.

The campaign is part the 2013 global programme GUWAA (Global Under Water Awareness Association).

Mavrovo Church among World's most beautiful abandoned churches

The abandoned church at the Mavrovo Lake heads the list of the most beautiful abandoned churches in the world, compiled by U.S. website "Huffington Post".

In the article titled "Abandoned Churches are Eerily Beautiful", there are photos from such churches from the United States, Belgium, Cambodia, France and Ireland.

"Though churches are normally places where people gather for spiritual fellowship, confession, or for quiet contemplation, these sacred spaces have been abandoned to the elements, their naves and pews standing silent and empty. Nonetheless, they still have a haunting beauty which comes through in these awesome photos", reads the comment.

Ohrid Lake stocked with 100,000 endemic trout

Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Ljupco Dimovski attended Saturday the stocking of Ohrid Lake with 100.000 endemic trout offspring.

Since 2006 until present day around 14 million trout offspring were stocked in the lake for which around Denar 35 million were invested, Dimovski said.

He said that approximately 2.1 million trout offspring are planned to be stocked for this year and the activity will be wrapped up by end of next month.

He also emphasised that same activities of trout stocking are being carried out also from the Albanian side.

The stocking of Ohrid Lake is carried out in line with the programme for artificial spawning process. In 1935, a breeding program was established to artificially spawn and hatch the native trout in order to support the natural recruitment of Lake Ohrid trout. Since then, the lake has been stocked with more than 450 million young trout in different stages of development.

Dojran packed with tourists

Ohrid Lake Day observed

Ohrid Lake Day was observed with an event in Ohrid on Friday.

Mayors of the three towns along the Ohrid Lake coast - Ohrid, Struga and Albania's Pogradec - attended the event.

In 2000, the board for the lake's protection declared June 21 - the first day of summer and the year's longest day - as the Ohrid Lake Day.

The observances also included the 4. recreational bicycle race around the lake.

What Ohrid? Crowded beaches in Dojran

Beach on Dojran lake.

With the return of the water levels in Dojran Lake, this southern resort is popular once again.

Dojran is back this year with its characteristic charm. Dojran is full of visitors.

Just during the month of July Dojran has seen over 20,000 tourists, which is quite a number considering the fact in previous years there was half of that during the entire summer.

The city is completely revitalized and low prices and natural beauty lure visitors.

Dojran is a historic town in the southeastern part of Macedonia on the shores of Lake Dojran, which was destroyed in World War II when it had only 18,000 inhabitants.

Today three settlements around Dojran Lake have the same name: Star Dojran, Nov Dojran and Sretenovo.

Dutch Tourists Arriving in Ohrid

The first group of 120 tourists from the Netherlands using arrangements of tour-operator "Arke Travel -TUI", arrived in Ohrid on Friday.

A formal event was held at Ohrid-based airport "St. Paul the Apostle", with Economy Minister Valon Saraqini and Netherlands Ambassador to Macedonia Marriet Schuurman greeting the Dutch tourists.

Minister Saraqini wished the guests a warm welcome, saying they should acquaint with Macedonia as much as possible during their stay and convey their impressions to friends at home.

Saraqini told reporters efforts would be implemented this year towards increasing the number of foreign tourists in Macedonia.

"Besides lowering the VAT for tourism services, we have adopted a new rulebook on categorization of capacities, which would significantly improve services offered by hotels. Another measure for attraction of tourists is the subsidizing of low-cost airlines with EUR 4,9 million allocated for the next three years", said the Economy Minister.

According to expectations, nine flights carrying foreign tourists are to land at the Ohrid airport every week.

"Taking into account information we have from tour-operators, we expect about 700 tourists per day from the Benelux countries only. Over 14,000 tourists are expected from the Netherlands this year", emphasized Saraqini while thanking the Dutch Embassy for successful promotion of Macedonia as an attractive tourism destination.

Ambassador Schuurman recalled that such charter flights brought 22,000 Dutch guests to Macedonia last year.

"We are convinced that more tourists will come from the Netherlands this year. I know that Dutch tourists like Macedonia very much, which has been confirmed by the fact that many who came last year are planning to spend their holidays here again this summer", underlined Schuurman.

Warm welcome for ArkeFly and tourists from The Netherlands

The first group of tourists from The Netherlands arrived at Ohrid St. Paul the Apostle Airport, marking the beginning of the tourist season. The guests were welcomed by the Ambassador of the Kingdom of The Netherlands, HE Marriet Schuurman, the Minister of Economy, Mr. Valon Saraqini and the General Manager of TAV Macedonia, Mr. Zoran Krstevski. The welcoming ceremony was organised by TAV Macedonia and the local TUI operator. According to the Macedonian tradition, the guests were offered bread and salt, but also cake and champagne.

Divers clear explosives from Macedonia lake

Ohrid lake - Macedonia.

Special teams of divers have cleared some four tonnes of explosives from Lake Ohrid in southwestern Macedonia, a protected UNESCO World Heritage site, the MIA news agency said Thursday."There were unexploded mines, bombs and different munitions for the Balkans wars in the 1900s, World War I and World War II... that posed a potential danger to the population," the interior ministry said in a statement quoted by MIA.The 358-square-kilometre (138-square-mile) lake is the deepest in the Balkans at 288 metres (945 feet). It straddles the border between Macedonia and Albania and has a unique ecosystem with more than 200 endemic species.According to Ekrem Zendeli, an environmental protection official, some 23,000 square metres of the lake have been cleared of explosives since the start of the operation in 2007.Over the years around 20 tonnes of explosives had been taken from the lake, Macedonia's main tourist attraction.

Albanian tour-operators, journalists visit Macedonia

Popova Sapka

Economy Minister Valon Saraqini and Macedonian Ambassador to Tirana Vele Trpevski met Monday with tour-operators and journalists from the Republic of Albania, who pay a visit to Macedonia within project "Promotion of Macedonia's Winter Tourism in Albania".
"Macedonia-Albania cooperation in the tourism field has focused on stay of Albanian tourists in the Ohrid-Struga region, as well as vacations of Macedonian nationals on the Adriatic coast. This project aims at offering Albanians our winter resorts. Moreover, we want to create a joint tourism product for the global tourist by combining their seaside with our lakes and mountains", said Minister Saraqini.
The Albanian guests were presented with the possibilities of winter resorts Mavrovo and Popova Sapka. They also met with Macedonian tour-operators and representatives of country's tourism associations.