Lake Urmia (Persian: دریاچه ارومیه, Daryache-ye Orumiye, Azerbaijani: اورمو گؤلو, Armenian: Ուրմիա Լիճ, "Urmia Lij"; ancient name: Lake Matiene) is a salt lake in northwestern Iran, near Iran's border with Turkey. The lake is between the Iranian provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan, west of the southern portion of the similarly shaped Caspian Sea. It is the largest lake in the Middle East, and the third largest salt water lake on earth, with a surface area of approximately 5,200 km² (2,000 mile²), 140 km (87 mi) length, 55 km (34 mi) width, and 16 m (52 ft) depth. Lake Urmia is protected as a "National Park" by the Iranian Department of Environment.
Read more about Lake Urmia: History, Chemistry, Ecology, Palaeoecology, Islands, Basin Rivers, Protests For Saving Lake Urmia
Famous quotes containing the word lake:
“What a wilderness walk for a man to take alone! None of your half-mile swamps, none of your mile-wide woods merely, as on the skirts of our towns, without hotels, only a dark mountain or a lake for guide-board and station, over ground much of it impassable in summer!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)