Dragon's Eye

Medjugorje

Krka N.P.

The dragon’s eye lake is elliptical in shape. It is located on the Gradina peninsula in Rogoznica opposite the Soline bay where the famous Frapa marina is located. Because of this shape, it is called Dragon’s eye. It is filled with salt water and deeply cut into the rocks overgrown with maquis and lower vegetation. It is connected to the sea by a cave whose opening can be seen on the surface of the water. The cave is called Dragon’s Ear and is bigger and deeper than the lake itself.

Legends about the lake

Numerous stories and legends are associated with the lake:

Legend 1

One legend says that the lake was created when a meteorite fell on its current location, which is ˝confirmed˝ by its correct shape.

Legend 2

Another of them is the story about the brothers, one of whom was blind. While dividing the inheritance, the healthy brother tricked the blind man, and the latter cursed him with the words: “if you did not divide it fairly, let everything turn into a lake”.

Legend 3

The dragon Murin, the illegitimate son of Hera and Poseidon, ruled the polis of Herakle from his palace on the island of Velika Smokvica. He protected the inhabitants from invaders and robbers, and every year, on the longest day, they had to give him the most beautiful girl as a wife. No unfortunate woman survived the first wedding night.

Legend has it that one day, on the winged horse Pegasus, the hero Aristoles, the great-grandson of the Argonaut Jason, appeared. He fell in love with a girl who was supposed to be the bride of a terrible dragon the next day. The young hero challenged the Dragon to a duel and mortally wounded Neman with a spear forged by the powerful goddess Athena with the help of Hephaestus and moon dust.

Dying, Murin clawed out his own eyes. He threw one eye far beyond Mljet, and the other just slipped under his feet and melted the stone. The sea poured into the stone hollow and a lake was formed, with the significant name Dragon’s Eye.

According to that legend about the dragon Murin, if two lovers bathe in the Dragon’s eye, they will be faithful to each other for the rest of their lives, and their marriage will be blessed with eternal love and healthy children.

An unusual phenomenon in the lake

All the stories and legends about the lake are related to the explanation of an unusual phenomenon in the lake that happens every few years. Then its inhabitants (fish, jellyfish, turtles and other marine animals) leave the lake and go to the sea through the passage. The lake becomes cloudy, and when it clears again after a while, the marine animals return to the lake and continue to live there until the next such occurrence.

In a scientific sense, the Dragon’s Eye is a unique hydrological and geomorphological phenomenon because intense biochemical processes take place in it, so we can consider it a natural bioreactor.

* Content from Wikipedia