Lake Urmia. Northwestern Iran

Lake Urmia.

Northwestern Iran.

Lake Urmia (pers. دریاچه ارومیه ‎ - Daryache-ye Orumiye, Azerbaijani Urmiya gölü, Armenian.Ուրմիա լիճ orԿապուտան (Kaputan),Kurd. Gola Urmiyê) - drainless salt Lake on the Armenian Plateau, in the North-West of Iran, the largest lake in the Near and Middle East.

In “Avesta” it is known as “ deep lake with salty waters" Chechasht- “shining white”, and this name is also mentioned by Persian authors of the 14th century. Istakhri calls it Bukhairat ash-Shurat - “the lake of heretics, schismatics.” In the Middle Ages, it was also called Salt Lake: Kabudan (Kabuzdan, Kabuzan - “blue, blue”, after the name of one of the islands), Shahi (Shahu, after the island-mountain) or Tala (Telya, after the fortress). The modern name comes from the city of the same name on west bank Lake Urmia. In 1926 it was renamed Rezaie in honor of Shah Reza Pahlavi, and in the 1970s the former name was returned.

Located between ostans (district, province: Iran is administratively divided into provinces (pers. استان ‎ - stop). Eastern and Western Azerbaijan, east of the Kurdish Mountains, at an altitude of 1275 m. Elongated from north to south, maximum length - about 140 km, width - about 40-55 km. The area ranges from 5200 to 6000 km². The average depth is 5 m, the maximum is up to 16 m. There are 102 islands on the lake, pistachio forests grow on the large ones, and a cluster of 50 small islands in the southern part.

Area near the lake Urmia, in Northwestern Iran, is an area that was already discovered by Greek historians and geographers of the second half of the 1st millennium BC. e. called Matiana or Matiena.

In this regard, the connection is interesting of this region with the ancient state of Mitanni.

Mitanni (Hanigalbat) - ancient state(XVI-XIII centuries BC) in the territory of Northern Mesopotamia and adjacent areas. The official languages ​​of the population were Hurrian and Akkadian. The capital of Mitanni, Vashshukanni (Khoshkani), was located at the source of the Khabur River. It is assumed that this city stood still modern city Serekani in Syria. Mitanni established itself on the East. arena in the vacuum created by the defeat of the Babylonian Empire by the Hittite-Hurrian alliance in the 16th century. BC e.

The fact that the Mitannians spoke the Hurrian language is known both from the texts of the treaties they concluded with the Hittites and from letters Egyptian pharaohs. Meanwhile, in the Mitanni language, an Indo-European substrate is obvious: the consolidation of the texts of treaties with the Hittites with the names of the deities Mithras, Varuna, Indra and oaths to these gods indicate that the Mitannians accepted the myths and beliefs that dominated the Indo-European group.

The Mitannian kings bore Indo-Iranian names along with second Hurrian ones, and worshiped, among others, Indo-Iranian gods: the spread of Indo-Iranian terms for horse breeding probably dates back to the Mitannian tradition.

Kazem Dashi Island. lake Urmia

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Abandoned church on Lake Urmia.

The German researcher A. Kammenhuber managed to show that all Indo-Iranian terms and proper names identified in the Mitanni tradition reflect not Indo-Iranian, but Hurrian pronunciation: the dynasty and its supporters retained Indo-Iranian customs and borrowings from the Indo-Iranian language, but they themselves spoke only Hurrian : this indicates its origin from areas where contacts with genuine speakers of the Indo-Iranian language were possible, which, obviously, included the founders of the dynasty.

The most likely location seems to be the area near the lake. Urmia in Northwestern Iran, in an area that Greek historians and geographers of the second half of the 1st millennium BC. e. called Matiana or Matiena.

The Mitanni Aryan language is the language of part of the population of the ancient kingdom of Mitanni, which, according to modern data, is usually classified as an Indo-European - Aryan language (however, the exact position in this branch of the Indo-European languages ​​has not been fully established). The name "Mitanni Aryan" is used to avoid confusion, since the main and official language The kingdom of Mitanni had a Hurrian language.

The Mitanni language contains features that are already archaic for Indian Vedic texts, as well as features that arose in the languages ​​of the Indian branch only in the 1st millennium BC. e., and absent in Sanskrit.

So in the agreement between the Hittite king Suppiluliumas and the Mitannian king Mativac ca. 1380 BC e. the deities Mitra, Varuna, Indra and Nasatya (Ashvins) are mentioned.

The Kikkuli text on horse training mentions terms such as aika (Sanskrit eka, one), tera (Sanskrit tri, three), panza (pancha, five), satta (sapta, seven), na (nava, nine) , vartana (vartana, circle). The numeral aika (one) is an indication that the Mitanni Aryan language was closer to the Indo-Aryan languages ​​than to other languages ​​of the Aryan branch.

Another text mentions the words babru (Sanskrit babhrú, brown), parita (palita, grey) and pinkara (pingala, red). Mitanni warriors were designated by the term marya - a similar term was available in Sanskrit.

Individual borrowings from Mitannian-Aryan penetrated in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. even in the Akkadian language: babrunnu (horse color), mariannu (charioteer) (cf. Old Indian márya‛ (young man), magannu (gift) (Old Indian maghá), susānu (horse trainer) (other .-ind. aśvá sani).

1) “Mitanni Aryan” is a very ancient language of the Indian branch, but it has already developed some features that arose in other Indian dialects only later.

2) “Mitanni Aryan” is a dialect of future Iranian tribes, but dating back to the time before the development of phonetic features that separated the Iranian branch from the Indian ones, and also already having some later, non-Iranian features.

3) “Mitannian Aryan” belongs to a branch intermediate between Iranian and Indian, namely Dardo - Kafirskoy.

This branch, which now survives only in North-Eastern Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kashmir, is considered the first in terms of the time of separation from the Indo-Iranian community, and the time of resettlement in the Iranian-Indian region. It is possible that the dialects of this branch were initially more widespread in Iran, until they were supplanted by later waves of Iranian-speaking tribes proper, which appeared here no later than the last centuries of the 2nd millennium BC. e. All these are distinctive features of the “Mitannian Aryan”. It should be noted that Indo-Iranianisms in culture, language and proper names are found only among the Hurrians - the Mitanni group.

It is worth noting that the Mitanni army possessed high technology in horse breeding and chariot combat, which probably made it possible to unite the small Hurrian tribal groups of Mesopotamia and subjugate the Semitic (Amorite-Akkadian) city-states throughout the space between the Zagros and Amanos mountain lines.There is little information about the internal political and social structure of Mitanni; it is believed that it was not a monolithic empire, but a loose union of nomes that united around Vashshukanni, the capital of Mitanni - Hanigalbat, who paid tribute to the Mitanni king and sent military contingents to help him. “Hurri people” - probably military nobility, played a very significant role under the king and were often mentioned together with the king in state treaties. Charioteers - Marianna - played a major role in war and governance.
The chariots themselves, as a type of weapon and the tactics of chariot combat, were undoubtedly borrowed from the Indo-Iranians, but the charioteers at that time, judging by their names, were pure Hurrians. The term marianna comes from the ancient Indian marya - “husband, young man.” This is proven by the fact that the Marianna institution existed not only among the Mitannians, who experienced Indo-Iranian influence, but also among all Hurrians in general, including Alalakh and Arraphe. And it should be noted that these Mariannas were not “feudal nobility,” but palace servants who received their chariots from government warehouses.

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Mitannian kingdom

In this post I would like to draw your attention to how, due to human activity, in the last few decades or hundreds of years, some places on our planet have changed beyond recognition.

What the place looked like before can be seen in photographs from various archives. How it is now can be determined from photographs of modern travelers or from satellite images.

1. The Aral Sea is a former endorheic salt lake in Central Asia, on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

In the photo, 2000 and 2014.

Since the 1960s, sea level (and the volume of water in it) began to decline rapidly due to the withdrawal of water from the main feeding rivers Amu Darya and Syr Darya for irrigation; in 1989, the sea split into two isolated reservoirs - the Northern (Small) and the Southern (Big) Aral Sea.

Before the start of shallowing, the Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world.

Back in 1980, only 12,000 people lived in Hurghada. By 2014 the population had grown to 250,000. Millions of tourists visit this resort every year.

All this disrupted the ecosystem and coral reefs suffered. In the Hurghada area, the number of reefs has decreased by 50 percent over the past 30 years.

Photos from 2000 and 2013.

To date, the lake is on the verge of extinction. Due to the drought that began in 1998, excessive consumption by residents of surrounding cities and villages of water from the lake, as well as the construction of dams on the rivers that feed it, the area of ​​Urmia was reduced by more than half.

It is the second highest peak in Ecuador and the highest active volcano in the country (5911 m). Cotopaxi is also one of the highest active volcanoes on the planet.

The glacier has significant economic, social and environmental importance. Its meltwater supplies fresh water and hydropower to Ecuador's capital, Quito.

The rate of deforestation varies greatly by region. Currently, the rate of deforestation is highest (and increasing) in developing countries located in the tropics. In the 1980s rainforests lost 9.2 million hectares, and in the last decade of the 20th century - 8.6 million hectares.

Half of the Brazilian state of Rondonia (area 243 thousand km²) in last years suffered deforestation.

In Russia, from 2000 to 2015, the area of ​​forests decreased by more than 25 million hectares (first place in the world).

The Pearl of Russia is truly in a state of unprecedented critical shallowing. The water is running out, the fish are drying up, and now the entire unique ecosystem is under threat.

Lake Van is located in the south of the Armenian Highlands, in Eastern Anatolia, not far from the Iranian border. A natural reservoir of significant area is located at an altitude of over one and a half kilometers, surrounded by mountains on all sides. To the south of the lake are the high ridges of the Eastern Taurus, to the east are the plateaus and individual peaks of the Kurdish Mountains, to the northeast are the Aladağlar range, and to the west are volcanic cones.

Lake Van occupies a deep - about 150 m - tectonic fissure. It marks the collision zone between the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates, which explains the increased seismic and volcanic activity in the region. On the shores of the lake rise the extinct stratovolcano Syuphan and the active one - Nemrut-dag. IN last time Suphan - the second largest volcano after Ararat in Turkey and the entire Armenian Highlands - erupted about 100 thousand years ago, and Nemrut - in 1692.

The result of an earlier eruption of Nemrut, which occurred in the Pleistocene about 250 thousand years ago, was the formation of Lake Van itself, when a multi-kilometer lava flow from the west blocked the flow of water from the Van Basin to the neighboring one.

Van is a closed lake, but several small rivers flow into it from the slopes of the surrounding mountains.

The waters of the lake are completely unsuitable for drinking and irrigation: Van is not only salty, but also the largest closed soda lake in the world. Its water contains a high content of sulfate, chloride and sodium carbonate, or soda ash. The lake water is highly alkaline (pH 9.7-9.8). All of these substances are used in the production of synthetic detergents. And today, salt is being mined on the lake for the needs of the household chemicals industry: the substances are obtained by simply evaporating lake water under the sun.

Nature

It is clear that not every living creature can survive in such water. Only one endemic species of fish has adapted to living in Lake Van - a representative of the bleak genus of the carp family Alburnus tarihi, which looks similar to an ordinary herring. The Turks call it Darek, other names are Inchi-mullet (pearl mullet) and Van-shahkuli (Van fish). This "herring" can live in fresh water, and in salt water, but prefers to breed only in fresh water - at the mouths of rivers and streams that flow into the lake. The fish is threatened with complete extinction, since its caviar is considered a delicacy.

Other inhabitants of the lake include 103 species of phytoplankton and 36 species of zooplankton.

And a Van cat lives on the shore. This is an ordinary domestic cat that finds itself in wildlife and adapted to living near a salty body of water. It has white fur and blue or amber eyes (often one eye of each color). The cat learned to swim in the lake and fish. As a sign of respect for such an amazing animal, the residents of the city of Van installed two large statues white miracle cats.

But they are busy not only with the extraction of soda and serving tourists. local residents. Presence big lake in this area of ​​the Armenian Highlands the climate somewhat softens, which is conducive to gardening: around the lake there are many apple, pomegranate and peach trees.

The water in the lake is considered healing, and those who suffer from rheumatism or arthritis take baths in it.

Nature divided the lake into two parts: the southern - large and deep, and the northern - smaller and shallower, connected by a strait. When winter comes, the shallow northern part of the lake and river mouths freeze, but this only happens at very low temperatures: after all, the concentration of salt in the water is very high.

Story

B IX-VI centuries BC e. on the site of the present city of Van was Tushpa, the capital of the state of Urartu. Van already had this name back then: it comes from the Armenian word “van” - “village”, or simply “inhabited place”. At the same time, the powerful Van fortress was built on the shore of the lake.

In the 8th century under King Menua, Urartu becomes the most powerful state in Western Asia. A 70-kilometer canal, a unique hydraulic structure, built by order of the king to supply fresh water to Tushpa, has survived to this day. In 2500 years it was repaired only once - in 1950.

After the defeat from the Assyrians in the 7th century. BC e. Urartu gradually fell into decline and ceased to exist in the 6th century. BC e. In the area of ​​the lake there are ruins with the names of the Urartian kings Sarduri I, Ishpuini, Menua and Argishti I.

During the era of Great Armenia, during the time of the commander, conqueror and king Tigran II the Great (140-55 BC), the Van region reached the peak of prosperity: it was an important political, commercial and religious center. In those days, Van, Urmia and Sevan were called the three Great Lakes of Great Armenia and even the Armenian seas.

The special qualities of Van water were noted at that time by the ancient Greek historian and geographer Strabo (64/63 BC - 23/24) in his major work “Geography”: “There are also large lakes in Armenia. There is Arsene, also called Tospitas. It contains baking soda and cleanses and restores clothes. However, due to this admixture of soda, the lake water is unfit for drinking.” Topistas is one of the old names of Van.

In 364, the army of the Sasanian king Shapur II came to the shore of Lake Van and destroyed cities and villages. In the 10th century these lands were part of the Armenian Vaspurakan kingdom.

By 1022, Byzantium annexed the entire region, but not for long. At the end of the 11th century. The Seljuks defeated the army of the Byzantine emperor Roman IV Diogenes and captured the entire region of Lake Van.

In 1514, the army of the expanding Ottoman Empire, establishing control over the Armenian Highlands, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Safavid army at the Battle of Chaldiran northeast of Lake Van.

Subsequently, the Armenian population of the shores of the lake was subjected to systematic destruction: first under Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1895-1896, then at the beginning of the 20th century, when the Armenians were exterminated or completely evicted by the Turkish authorities.

Lakes have been preserved on the shores and islands architectural monuments Armenian presence in these areas, the most famous are the ruins of the Church of the Holy Cross and the port of the times of the Armenian Artsrunid kings (X-XI centuries) on the island of Akhtamar. The church - a monument of Armenian medieval architecture made of red tuff, decorated with frescoes and stone carvings - was the own temple of the dynasty of Vaspurakan rulers. This is the only building of the palace complex of King Gagik II that has survived to this day. Next to it are Armenian khachkars - gravestones.

Until the beginning of the 20th century. The church remained part of the monastery complex; it was abandoned during the First World War, restored by the Turkish authorities in 2005-2007. and turned into a museum. In 2010, the Turkish government allowed church services to be held once a year.

Van city - administrative center silt of the same name. There is practically nothing preserved in the city that reminds us that Christians settled here relatively recently. The city itself is inhabited by Seljuk Turks, and the villages around Lake Van are entirely Kurdish.

general information

Location: eastern Turkey.
Administrative affiliation : Bitlis and Van silts.
Origin: dammed-tectonic.
Type of mineralization : salty.
Water balance: drainless; the flowing rivers are Bendimahi, Zeylan-Deresi, Karasu, Michinger, Khosap, Güzelsu.
Cities: Van - 370,190 people. (2012), Ercis - 173,795 people. (2015), Edremit - 118,786 people, Tatvan - 67,035 people. (2012), Muradiye - 50,981 people, Ahlat - 38,622 people, Gevash - 28,801 people. (2015).
Languages: Turkish, Kurdish.
Ethnic composition : Turks, Kurds (majority).
Religion: Islam (Sunnism, Alevism).
Currency unit : Turkish lira.

Numbers

Surface area : 3755 km 2 .
Length: 119 km from northeast to southwest, 80 km from northwest to southeast.
Length coastline : 430 km.
Volume: 607 km 3 .
Average depth: 171 m.
Maximum depth : 451 m.
Edge: 1646 m.
drainage basin : 12,500 km 2 .
Salinity: at the bottom - 67% o, average - 22% o, at the confluence of rivers and streams - fresh.

Climate and weather

Subtropical with features of continental desert, mountainous.
Summer is dry, winter is rainy and windy.
Average air in January (Van) : -3.5°C.
Average air temperature in July (Van) : +22.2°C.
Average annual precipitation (Van) : 387 mm.
Relative humidity (Van) : 60-65%.

Economy

Minerals : table salt, soda, thermal springs.
Industry: salt making.
Agriculture : crop farming (olives, peaches, apples, pomegranates), livestock farming (mountain pasture and pasture - sheep and goats, fishing).
Service sector : tourism, trade, transport (shipping).

Attractions

Natural

Akhtamar, Charpanak, Adir, Kus and Ghadir islands

Volcanoes Suphan (4058 m) and Nemrut (2948 m)

Historical

Van Fortress (city of Van, IX-VII centuries BC)

Irrigation canal of King Menua (8th century BC)

Achaemenid rock inscription (5th century BC)

Church of the Holy Cross (Surb Khach, 915-921) and the ruins of the port (10th century) on the island of Akhtamar

Ruins of the monastery (Adyr Island, founded in the 11th century, remains of a 16th century church, non-residential premises - zhamatun, second half of the 18th century)

Ruins of the monasteries of Surb Tovmas and Garmirak (Deveboynu Peninsula)

Surb Stepanos (Muradiye)

Surb Marinos (Michinger River)

Ruins of churches (villages of Salmanaga, Elmadzhi and Kyyidyuzu)

Curious facts

Apparently, the earliest mention of the cleansing properties of Van water is on the copper casing of the Balavat Gate, an artifact from the era of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (859-824 BC). On this exhibit of the British Museum it is written that the king “sank into the waters of the Urartu Sea and washed his bloody sword in its waters.” The Sea of ​​Urartu is one of the ancient names of Lake Van.

In 1991, scientists discovered microbiolites at the bottom of a 40-centimeter-high lake: small towers of the minerals aragonite and calcite, created by bacteria living in the lake.

The tips of the Van cat's ears are apricot-colored. According to local legend, the Van cat often swims so that only its ears are visible above the surface of the water, and therefore over time they were colored by the sun itself. The export of these strange cats from Turkey without special permission is prohibited by law and is punishable by a huge fine.

Lake Van is located on the Ankara (Türkiye) - Tabriz (Iran) railway line. In order not to build a bypass route along the winding coast with difficult terrain, in the 1970s. The ferry crossing Tatvan - Van was opened.

In the 1990s. archaeologists have discovered confirmation of the critical role played by the Nemrut volcano in the life of the ancient inhabitants of the lake’s shores. Nemrut turned out to be a source of obsidian - volcanic glass, the main stone age material for the manufacture of weapons and tools. Analysis of finds in and around Mesopotamia Dead Sea showed that people used obsidian from the Nemrut volcano. And on the banks of the Van, archaeologists found a village where obsidian was processed and traded. This proved that Van had been on busy trade routes since ancient times.

Local legends associate the name of the Nemrut volcano with the name of the mythical ruler Nimrod, mentioned in the Bible. Allegedly, the king somehow angered the gods, and they collapsed the mountain on which his castle stood, forming Lake Van in this place. The same legendary ruler is also credited with the construction of a fortress on the Golan Heights, built in the Middle Ages.

The Urartian king Menua sought to leave a memory of himself for centuries and for this purpose ordered a description of his exploits to be carved in cuneiform on stones and clay tablets. In the 19th century, during work in one of the churches near Lake Van, one of these stones was found, which was used as a foundation for construction in the 5th century. The text is very characteristic of the rulers of that time: “I set Babanakha’s country on fire. I conquered the country of Ulibani and set it on fire. I conquered the country of Dirgu and burned it. He killed some people, took others away alive.”

One of the reliefs on the outside of the wall of the church on the island of Akhtamar depicts a drunken Noah. The relief serves as a reminder of the belief that after the Great Flood, Noah's Ark ended up northeast of Lake Van - on the top of Mount Ararat.

Rumors that a certain monster lives in the lake appeared in 1995 and, in all likelihood, is explained by the persistent desire of the local population to attract more tourists. Even cryptozoologists reject the possibility of a large living creature existing in a salty soda lake. Nevertheless, an organization has been created at the University of Van to study the “monster of Lake Van”.

In Bolivia, the second largest lake, Lake Poopo, has completely disappeared, as reported by the European Space Agency on February 10. Previously, the lake occupied an area of ​​3 thousand square kilometers and was considered the second largest after Titicaca. True, its depth was small - about 3 meters.

The disappearance of the lake is confirmed by data obtained from ESA's Proba-V satellite, which monitors the earth's surface on a daily basis. Lake Poopo This is not the first time he has disappeared. The last time evaporation occurred was in 1994, but then it filled with water again. However, experts are now skeptical about the likelihood of the lake filling. They say recovery could take many years, if it happens at all.

Salt Lake Poopo in Bolivia is located on the Altiplano plateau at an altitude of 3700 meters above sea level, 130 km from the Bolivian city of Oruro. Photo from 2013.

Drying also includes Great Salt Lake in the USA, the ancient predecessor of which is Lake Bonneville. The water level in the Great Salt Lake is highly dependent on precipitation and is not constant from year to year.

Aral Sea- a former drainless salt lake in Central Asia on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Since the 1960s, sea levels began to decline due to water intake from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers for the purpose of irrigation. In 1989, the sea split into two isolated bodies of water - the Northern (Small) and Southern (Big) Aral Sea. In 2014 East End Southern (Big) Aral Sea completely dry. Before the start of shallowing, the Aral Sea was the fourth largest lake in the world.

Bonneville- a dry salt lake in northwestern Utah, USA. The lake formed approximately 32,000 years ago and dried up approximately 16,800 years ago. The place is widely known for its two high-speed highways, which run along the surface of the lake at different angles. The flat salt surface of Lake Bonneville allows cars to reach speeds of more than 1000 km/h.

Lop Nor- a dry salt lake in western China at an altitude of about 780 meters above sea level. Once a large salt lake, like the Aral Sea, Lop Nor gradually decreased and became salinized due to human economic activity.

Urmia- an endorheic salt lake located in the Armenian Plateau in northwestern Iran. Largest lake Near and Middle East.

Groom Lake- dried up salt lake in the USA, in the south of Nevada. It contains the runways of the Nellis Air Force Base bombing range test site, better known as Area 51.