In the heart of Notranjska, the most distinct Karst landscape in Slovenia, in a Karst field sheltered from the southwest by the densely wooded Javorniki Hills, lies the illustrious Cerknica Lake.
It is an intermittent lake, filled mainly by autumn rains and the early spring thaw, which stops in May or June, sometimes even in mid-winter. The water comes from Karst springs bubbling up at the Lake’s edge and flows out underground, through sinkholes. Its surface level varies by over 7 metres (it lies between 546 and 553 metres above sea level). When the water is low, it spans over 20 square kilometres, but when high waters set in, it is over 10 kilometres in length, almost 5 kilometres wide, and its surface area exceeds 30 square kilometers
