Lake Van

Lake Van (Turkish: Van Gölü, Armenian: Վանա լիճ, Kurdish: Gola Wanê) is the largest lake in Turkey, in the far east of the country.

Map of Lake Van

Akdamar Island is in this lake. Although Lake Van is at 1,640 m (5,380 ft) altitude with harsh winters, it does not freeze because it is very salty, except occasionally the shallow northern section.^[1]

History

The lake was the center of the Urartian kingdom from about 1000 BC, and the capital of Urartu, Tushpa, was on the shore of Lake Van (on the site of the medieval castle of Van, west of Van city). It then came under the control of the Medes.^[2]

Later the land around the lake was ruled by Armenians.^[3] Along with Lake Sevan in today's Armenia and Lake Urmia in today's Iran,^[4][5] Van was one of the three great lakes of the Armenian Kingdom, referred to as the seas of Armenia.^[6][7][8]

Related pages

• Arzashkun