Photo of the Day by Dreamstime: Bear Lake

The Romania Photo of the Day created in partnership with stock photo provider Dreamstime aims to highlight the best of Romania. From stunning landscapes and popular tourist destinations and landmarks to people, traditions, and food, this series helps you discover Romania one photo at a time. This week, we put the focus on Romanian mountain lakes.

In the east of Transylvania, in a little town called Sovata, lies a lake known as the Dead Sea of Europe. With the highest salt concentration on the planet, Bear Lake is the main attraction of Sovata, the only heliothermal lake in Europe and the largest such lake in the world. (Photo source - click on the number to get to the photo 250209125 © Oancia Iulian | Dreamstime.com)

It is quite deep, the deepest point of the lake being at 18.9 m (although some locals claim it is thousands of meters deep, or even bottomless).

Situated at an altitude of 502 m, Bear Lake is part of a nature reserve and is surrounded by forests with a diverse range of trees, including hornbeam (Quercus petraea), oak (Quercus robur), beech (Fagus sylvatica), ash (Fraxinus excelsior), pine (Pinus sylvestris), wild cherry (Cerasus avium) and others.

The grassland is home to a number of flora, including some endemic to the area or protected species such as the lady's slipper (Cypripedium calceolus) and the wood lily (Lilium martagon), Wikipedia says.

The reserve's fauna is also rich in mammal, bird, reptile, and fish species, some of which are also protected. Some of the wildlife living here are the brown bear (Ursus arctos), the red deer (Cervus elaphus), the grey wolf (Canis lupus), the red fox (Vulpes vulpes), the capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) and the white-throated dipper.

The fact that Bear Lake is surrounded by such rich vegetation and fauna, despite being the saltiest lake in the world, with an average salinity of 250 grams per liter, makes it truly unique. Its water temperature is another important feature, as it has different temperatures at different depths: 29°C at the surface and 41°C deeper.

As mentioned above, Bear Lake is a heliothermal lake, a characteristic that