The drought affecting Türkiye's Lake Van continues to worsen, bringing with it many challenges, but it has also unveiled great historical treasures, like 800,000-year-old underwater fairy chimneys once hidden in the lake's depths.
Lake Van has been affected by climate change and has continuously witnessed a decline in water levels, but it remains a popular destination for tourists and is home to a rich ecosystem.
The country's largest lake, the declining rate of precipitation and evaporation aggravated by higher temperatures resulted in the severe drought that has exposed thousand-year-old stalagmites (microbialites), or "underwater fairy chimneys."
Microbialites are mounds of rock or benthic sedimentary deposits made of carbonate mud that form with the help of microbes. For billions of years, microbialites played a crucial role in helping produce the oxygen-rich atmosphere that now supports life on earth.
The depths of the lake resemble an open-air museum with structures that are ecologically very valuable, dating back to some 800,000 years.
These microbialite fields have drawn a lot of attention. Resembling coral reefs, these underwater fairy chimneys also have an important place in terms of diving tourism.
The unique formations are especially visible in the village of Incekaya, located on the shore of Van Lake in Tatvan. Hundreds of different sizes can now be viewed nearby. The resulting images offer a beautiful scene, on the one hand, and reveal the scope of the water withdrawal on the other.
Though Lake Van is a very valuable heritage as well as its fairy chimneys, the sudden withdrawal of water is actually causing their disappearance. There has been a serious withdrawal in the last two years. It negatively affects the existence of these formations, which are of great value. Those exposed to the sun and air disappear and turn into rocky structures.
Even if the water rises again, they may not survive.
