Lake Hazar
Rift lake in the Taurus Mountains, Turkey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lake Hazar (Turkish: Hazar Gölü; Kurdish: Gola Hezarê; Armenian: Ծովք լիճ, romanized: Covk‘ lič) is a rift lake in the Taurus Mountains, 22 km southeast of Elazığ, notable as the source of the Tigris.
| Lake Hazar | |
|---|---|
 Lake Hazar and pine trees | |
  Lake Hazar Location within Turkey | |
| Location | Taurus Mountains |
| Coordinates | 38°29′N 39°25′E |
| Lake type | Rift lake |
| Tigris | |
| Basin countries | Turkey |
| Max. length | 22 km (14 mi) |
| Max. width | 6 km (3.7 mi) |
Sunken city
Scientists found 4,000-year-old archaeological traces of a city, estimated to have been submerged since 1830, below the lake. Turkey wanted to register this historic 'Sunken City' in eastern Anatolia as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[1]
Ebubakar Irmak, mayor of Sivrice, dove into the lake in 2017 and found the remains of churches, walls of a castle, pots, pottery and glazed plates of the citadel with traces of the Seljuk, Byzantine and Ottoman eras.[2][3] In 2019, amphora tombs were found in the sunken city.[4]
Based on the writings of the Armenian author Urfali Mateos, who lived during the Seljuk era, researchers know that a small fortress once stood at this site during the Byzantine period, and that a monastery was subsequently built there in the Seljuk period.[5]
