Only a few kilometers separate the city of Kastoria from the small lakeside village of Dispilio, where a full-size “specimen” of the Neolithic lake settlement has been created. You can park in the patio and after crossing the road that leads to the sea dwelling place after a green meadow you see eight houses made of wood and mud, -as they were built in those years- by prehistoric fishermen, farmers, breeders and hunters. The houses are placed on a wooden structure – like a large platform – while below them the lake water and reeds stand motionless, until the first wind blows.
The settlement was discovered in 1932, when the lake level dropped and some piles appeared on the surface of the water which made people wonder how they had ended up there in the first place. About thirty years later, in 1965, the level of the lake dropped again and hundreds of new piles resurfaced, leading to the discovery of the Neolithic settlement at the lake, around the sixth millennium BC, where a major civilization developed in the area. In 1992, excavations began and slowly the specimen of the settlement was created.
You can visit the archaeological site on weekdays and holidays at 9.00-17.00. If you want, there is a program to inform the visitors every 30 minutes, starting from 9:00 in the morning.