Lake Van

Lake Van (Turkish: Van Gölü, Armenian: Վանա լիճ Vana lich or Vana Lij, Kurdish: Gola Wanê ) is the largest lake in Turkey, located in the far east of the country in Van district. It is a saline soda lake, receiving water from numerous small streams that descend from the surrounding mountains. Lake Van is one of the world's largest endorheic lakes (having no outlet). The original outlet from the basin was blocked by an ancient volcanic eruption. Although Lake Van is situated at an altitude of 1,640 m (5,380 ft) with harsh winters, it does not freeze due to its high salinity except occasionally the shallow northern section.

Read more about Lake Van:  Hydrology and Chemistry, Geology, Climate, Ecology, History, Architecture, Transportation, Islands

Famous quotes containing the words lake and/or van:

    Will lovely, lively, virginal today
    Shatter for us with a wing’s drunken blow
    This hard, forgotten lake haunted in snow
    By the sheer ice of flocks not flown away!
    Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–1898)

    Some have said that the thesis [of indeterminacy] is a consequence of my behaviorism. Some have said that it is a reductio ad absurdum of my behaviorism. I disagree with this second point, but I agree with the first. I hold further that the behaviorism approach is mandatory. In psychology one may or may not be a behaviorist, but in linguistics one has no choice.
    —Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)