Record-breaking temperatures and prolonged drought in Greece have exposed a sunken village in Athens’ main reservoir for the first time in 30 years.

The village of Kallio was submerged in the late 1970s when the Mornos dam was built 200 kilometres (124 miles) west of the capital, the artificial lake fed by the Mornos and Evinos rivers.

With lake levels down by 30 percent in recent months according to state water operator EYDAP, the ruins of a school and houses have reappeared.

‘The level of Lake Mornos has dropped by 40 metres (131 feet),’ said Yorgos Iosifidis, a 60-year-old pensioner who had to leave his home as a young man along with the other villagers when the area was flooded.

‘You see the first floor that remains of my father-in-law’s two-storey house… and next to it you can see what’s left of my cousins’ house,’ Iosifidis, who now lives higher up the hill’, he said.  

Photograph shows the remnants of a house that reappeared when the level of the Mornos artificial lake dropped following a drought, near the village of Lidoriki, about 240 km northwest of Athens, on September 1, 2024

The remains of a building of the sunken village of Kallio is revealed due to the receding water level of Mornos artificial lake, near the village of Lidoriki in the prefecture of Fokida, about 240 km northwest of Athens, Greece, 29 August 2024

Houses and buildings of the sunken village of Kallio are revealed due to the receding water level of Mornos artificial lake

Drought worsened this year in the Mediterranean country that is well accustomed to summer heat waves.

After the mildest winter documented, Greece had its hottest July on record, according to preliminary weather data from the national observatory. This came after similarly record-breaking temperatures in June.

Nearly 80 houses in Kallio, in addition to the church and school, were ‘sacrificed’ to supply Athens with water, Kallio village chairman Apostolis Gerodimos told state agency ANA.

This is the second time Kallio has reappeared, after another period of drought in the early 1990s, said Iosifidis.

‘If it doesn’t rain soon, the level will drop further and the problem will be more acute than it was then,’ he said.

Anastasis Papageorgiou, 26, a doctor who lives in Amygdalia, a village near Mornos, said the area has seen very little rain or snow in the last two years.

‘The situation is difficult at the moment, so we have to be careful with water,’ he said.

The Greek authorities called on the 3.7 million inhabitants of Attica, the region surrounding Athens and home to a third of the Greek population, not to waste water.

The Mornos artificial lake and an area of the riverbed amidst its receding water level. Over the past two years, the level of Mornos artificial lake, which serves as a water supply to the capital Athens, has receded more than 35 meters, with approximately 18 just the past year, according to local residents

In 1980 when the Mornos lake was completed by constructing a dam in Mornos River, 80 houses along with their church and primary school of the village of Kallio, were evacuated and submerged in the water for the lake to be created

The primary school of the sunken village of Kallios is revealed due to the receding water level of Mornos artificial lake

Submerged houses and buildings of the sunken village of Kallios

This aerial photograph shows the remnants of a house that reappeared when the level of the Mornos artificial lake dropped

This photograph shows the remnants of a house that reappeared

Yiorgos Iosifidis, pensioner, 67, who lives in newly rebuilt houses in Kallio, walks past Mornos artificial lake

Photograph shows remnants of a house that appeared when the level of the Mornos artificial lake dropped following a drought. Greece uses 85 percent of its water for irrigation and needs to build more dams, the prime minister said

EYDAP has also tapped into additional reservoirs near the capital.

On a visit to neighbouring Thessaly on Monday to discuss reconstruction works after last year’s destructive floods, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Greece had to improve its water management.

‘We don’t have the luxury to waste water… at a time when we know with certainty that we will have less water, we must protect water resources more methodically than we have done so far,’ Mitsotakis said.

Greece uses 85 percent of its water for irrigation and needs to build more dams, the prime minister said.

This comes following a summer of ferocious heat in southern Europe, with scorching and dry conditions fanning wildfires in Greece and around the Balkans, while areas of Portugal and Italy also suffered infernos.

Drought worsened this year in the Mediterranean country that is well accustomed to summer heat waves

This photograph shows the remnants of a house that reappeared

After the mildest winter documented, Greece had its hottest July on record, according to preliminary weather data from the national observatory

The low water level caused by drought comes following a summer of ferocious heat in southern Europe

Residents of village of Kallio stand outside their house next to Mornos artificial lake

This aerial photograph shows cracks on the shore of the Mornos artificial lake following a severe drought, near the village of Lidoriki, about 240 km northwest of Athens, on September 1, 2024

British holidaymakers heading to Greece this summer have been warned over unseasonably high temperatures hitting tourist hotspots. 

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Europe in flames: 100-foot high Greek wildfires move ‘like lightning’ and threaten Athens

Last month, wildfires burned through the outskirts of Athens after walls of flames as high as 100ft spread ‘like lighting’ due to gale-force winds. 

More than 500 firefighters backed by fire engines and waterbombing aircrafts battled the blaze that broke out near the village of Varnavas 20 miles north of Athens, torching homes, vehicles and swathes of bone-dry forest.

Wildfires have been a common feature of Greek summers for years, but climate change has brought hotter weather and less rain, ideal conditions for large-scale fires.

The worsening situation was mirrored across southern Europe, including in Spain and the Balkans.