"Blue Eye", a source and a legend

One of the pearls of Albanian nature, too coveted by visitors running through Albania is the "Blue Eye". The Blue Eye is a very beautiful resort located near the road between Saranda and Gjirokastra. It is a very picturesque valley where a crystalline water emerges from a blue spring. From the bottom of the fountain the water gets the blue color under the rays of the sun and the shade of the trees. It is the largest and most interesting source among the 18 sources that explode at the foot of the broad mountain.

The Blue Eye is proclaimed a monument of nature. Its shape is oval similar to the shape of an eye, it explodes from the dark to the middle and the blue sideways. Its depth is too great, it reaches up to 45 m depth. It is located opposite the village of Krongj, 45 m below the Drino valley level and is the main discharge of Gjerë alhe. It is a source of fresh and sweet waters surrounded by dense vegetation and evergreen vegetation.

The source of the Bistrica River, which traverses a part of the south of Albania, really resembles a large round eye with a diameter of about ten meters. The eye pad, a deep pit of water, from where the water rises up, like a boiling kettle that has just boomed has a blue color in black. It comes and is then surrounded by the blue part of the eye that becomes so because the depth of the source there is less.

The beauty sought by many visitors is located right on the national road Saranda-Delvina-Gjirokastra. If the journey follows the opposite of the Bistric stream, it reaches the source of the Blue Eye, where greenery melts in the waters flowing.

A guide table is run by the Blue Eye. A small stop to enter the park that is managed by the Delvina forest company, on a winding road, parallel to the large basin of the spring. All the sweet water of the fountain is surrounded by a diverse vegetation. The song of birds, the fragrances of greenery and the sound of the rays remain lively. Here foreign visitors stop, photograph, enjoy the water of the springs flowing, as well as cooking in the two tourist premises.

They may even choose to wake up there in the hotel's wooden lodges. The special climate and the proximity to Saranda and the Ionian Sea, the rich Delvina and a little further to Muzina, with Gjirokastra, makes it necessary to find the source with the flow from the underground. A rich bird and insect habitat, run over the petals of flowers, stand on the leaves of the rays and continue the dazzling dance in the air. Buses with visitors are parked at the entrance to the park, and guests go to the green paths to the magic source, along with the rustling of the waters that calm down the silence, the voices of the people's eyes, and the amazement of various languages, where the most mysterious words fascinating.

For the Blue Eye, there is a story about a dragon and beautiful vampire.

In the years of building oil wells, an engineer approached with the eyes of the girlfriend's changing color of the spring, so the story of a love became the refrain of a purity of water and breathtaking sobriety.

According to legend, in those areas was ruled by a dragon who abducted girls, stopped water and made life difficult for them. While finally killed and when he was killed, the dragon's eye poured out this pure water that continues to flow downstream into the form of the Bistrica River, feeding a rare vegetation for its density and strength and giving light which illuminates the towns and villages of the south.

A dragon that stops water and kidnaps girls is hated, and the fact that the eye of this dead dragon turns into a fountain of life as if it emotionally misleads, merging into one good and evil. However, the meaning of this legend, like many others similar to the dragon, is clear. It symbolizes man's struggle to overcome evil, or the forces of nature, and to pave the way for life; but also its dependence on nature. "We did not feel like a winner" (you can not subjugate it except by submitting it) says Bekoni about nature.

The Blue Eye with everything around it is just a natural temple devoted to the mystery of life, the struggle of man to survive in nature and at the same time its indivisibility. A temple where, instead of stone columns, around the altar, a hundred-year-old high rays take off from the water. Everything around it is imposed by the force of what we often call "sacred" which sometimes appears with magic nuances, sometimes with the mystery and fears that arouse, once with respect and greatness, but always with the strength to stand by .

In addition to the beautiful nature there is the hospitality of the locals, the characteristic gastronomy of the province, the tranquility of nature that force the visitor to stop and seek peace for a few hours in this natural paradise.