Lake Van (Turkish: Van Gölü; Armenian: Վանա լիճ, romanized: Vana lič̣; Kurdish: Gola Wanê) is the largest lake in Turkey. It lies in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey in the provinces of Van and Bitlis, in the Armenian highlands. It is a saline soda lake, receiving water from many small streams that descend from the surrounding mountains. It is one of the worlds few endorheic lakes (a lake having no outlet) of size greater than 3,000 square kilometres and has 38% of the countrys surface water (including rivers). A volcanic eruption blocked its original outlet in prehistoric times. It is situated at 1,640 m above sea level. Despite the high altitude and winter averages below 0 °C , high salinity usually prevents it from freezing; the shallow northern section can freeze, but rarely.
