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The Great Prespa Lake (: ''Преспанско Езеро, Prespansko Ezero'') is divided between Albania, Greece and the Republic of Macedonia. The Small Prespa Lake (Greek: ''Limni Mikrá Prespa'') is shared only between Greece (138 km&2 drainage area; 43.5 km&2 surface area) and Albania (51 km&2 drainage area; 3.9 km&2 surface area). In the 10th Century , Bulgarian tsar Samuil built a fortress and church of St Achilius on an island called Achil in the Small Prespa Lake, on the Greek side of the border. The biggest island in the Great Prespa Lake, on the Republic of Macedonia's side, is called Golem Grad ("Large Town"). It is substantially bigger than the other island Mal Grad (Small Town, in Albania) and has the remains of a 14th Century monastery dedicated to St. Peter . Today, both islands are uninhabited. Because Great Prespa Lake sits about 150m above Lake Ohrid , which lies only about 10 km (6 miles) to the west, its waters run through underground channels in the Karst and emerge from Springs which feed streams running into Lake Ohrid. For many years, the Greek part of the Prespa Lakes region was an underpopulated, military sensitive area which required special permission for outsiders to visit. It saw fierce fighting during the Greek Civil War and much of the local population subsequently emigrated to escape endemic poverty and political strife. The region remained little developed until the 1970s , when it began to be promoted as a tourist destination. With an abundance of rare fauna and flora, the area was declared a Transnational Park in 2000 . The largest town in the Prespa Lakes region is Resen in the Republic of Macedonia. REFERENCES
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