Lake Nemrut
Nemrut Gölü
Interesting facts
- Obsidian from Nemrut was among the most important toolmaking stones of the Stone Age, traded as far as Mesopotamia and the Dead Sea region.
- The volcano's last recorded eruption took place in 1692, and steam and hot springs on the caldera floor show that it is dormant rather than extinct.
- Nemrut's caldera is reckoned the largest in Turkey and among the largest in Europe, with walls rising on average about 600 metres above its floor.
- Before its summit collapsed some 270,000 years ago, the volcano's cone is thought to have stood around 4,400 metres high.
- The lake is fed from below by hot springs, so its deep water is warmer than its surface, and it is slowly turning salty under volcanic influence.
- Its small neighbour Ilı Göl, whose name means 'hot lake', can reach about 60 °C in summer near the springs along the fault.
- The volcano takes its name from Nimrod, the biblical king said in local tradition to have ruled the area and to have built the Tower of Babel.
- Eruptions around 787 BC and 657 BC were probably witnessed by the people of the ancient kingdom of Urartu, whose fortresses ring Lake Van.
- Sheltered from wind by the crater walls, the caldera is the only place in the region where broadleaf trees such as birch and aspen grow at this altitude.
- Roughly 38 of the plant species recorded in the caldera are endemic, and velvet scoters breed along the lake shore.
Why it is worth it
On the western shore of Lake Van in eastern Turkey, the volcano Nemrut has a summit that has fallen in on itself, leaving a caldera nearly ten kilometres across. Much of its floor is filled by Lake Nemrut, deep blue water at about 2,250 metres above sea level, enclosed by the steep inner walls of the crater. It is one of the largest volcanic crater lakes in the world — 12.4 km² in area and as much as 176 metres deep — and its fresh water is clear enough to drink.
Nemrut is a young volcano, its cone still barely eroded, and it has shaped the whole region: its lava flows are what dammed the basin and created Lake Van, the largest lake in Turkey. The crater floor holds several smaller lakes as well, two of them permanent. The smaller, Ilı Göl, sits right over the volcanic fault and is warmed by hot springs along its shore, while hot water seeping into the main lake keeps it from freezing entirely in winter. Much of the crater floor is covered by obsidian and tuff, and the black volcanic glass glints along the paths.
The caldera is a protected natural monument and, since 2013, a Ramsar wetland. Around 450 plant species have been recorded in the caldera, among them a rare tulip whose flowers hang downwards, and griffon vultures and golden eagles circle above the rims. Seen from the rim, with the dark crater walls, the green warm lake and the great blue sweep of the main lake, it is one of the most striking volcanic landscapes in Turkey.
Getting there
The crater rim is about 13 km by road from Tatvan: the turn-off is signposted from the Tatvan–Bitlis road, and a paved road climbs to the rim and down into the caldera. The road is usually clear of snow only from around June to October. The nearest airport is Muş Airport (MSR), about 51 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Lake Nemrut is a freshwater crater lake in Bitlis Province, eastern Turkey. It is part of Nemrut Caldera, a volcanic caldera atop Volcano Nemrut.
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