In this post, I would like to draw your attention to how, due to human activities, in the past few tens or hundreds of years, some places on our planet have changed beyond recognition.
How the place looked earlier can be seen in the pictures from various archives. As it is now - can be determined by photographs of modern travelers or pictures taken from satellites.
1. The Aral Sea is a former closed-drainage salt lake in Central Asia, on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
The photo shows 2000 and 2014.
Since the 1960s, the sea level (and the volume of water in it) began to decline rapidly due to the withdrawal of water from the main feeding rivers of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya for irrigation purposes, in 1989 the sea broke up into two isolated reservoirs - Northern (Small) and Southern (Big) Aral Sea.
Before the shallowing began, 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 has disrupted the ecosystem, and the coral reefs have suffered. In the Hurghada area, the number of reefs has decreased by 50 percent over the past 30 years.
Photo of 2000 and 2013.
By now, the lake is on the verge of extinction. Due to the drought that began in 1998, the excessive consumption of water from the lake by the inhabitants of the surrounding towns and villages, as well as the construction of dams on the rivers feeding it, the area of Urmia has more than halved.
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 is of significant economic, social and environmental importance. Its melt water provides fresh water and hydropower to the Ecuadorian capital, Quito.
The rate of deforestation is highly dependent on the region. Deforestation is currently the fastest (and increasing) in developing countries 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 (an area of 243,000 km²) has been deforested in recent years.
In Russia, over the period from 2000 to 2015, the area of forested areas decreased by more than 25 million hectares (first place in the world).
The pearl of Russia is indeed in a state of unprecedented critical shallowing. Water leaves, fish dries up and now the entire unique ecosystem is under threat.
Lake Urmia.
Northwest Iran.
Lake Urmia (pers. دریاچه ارومیه - Daryache-ye Orumiyye, azerb. Urmiya gölü, arm.Ուրմիա լիճ orԿապուտան (Kaputan),Kurd. Gola Urmiyê) is an internal-drainage salt lake in the Armenian Highlands, in the North-West of Iran, the largest lake in the Near and Middle East.
In "Avesta" it is known as "a deep lake with salty waters" Chechasht- "shining - white", and under this name is also mentioned by Persian authors of the XIV century. Istakhri calls it Bukhayrat ash-Shurat - "the lake of heretics, schismatics." In the Middle Ages, it was also called the Salt Lake: Kabudan (Kabuzdan, Kabuzan - "blue, blue", after the name of one of the islands), Shahi (Shakhu, on the island-mountain) or Tala (Tela, on the fortress). The modern name comes from the city of the same name on the western shore of Lake Urmia. In 1926 it was renamed Rezaye in honor of Shah Reza Pahlavi, and in the 1970s the former name was returned.
Located between the provinces (region, province: Iran is administratively divided into provinces (Pers. استان - stop). East and West 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 large ones, in the southern part there are a cluster of 50 small islands.
The area around the lake. Urmia, in Northwestern Iran, is an area that was still used by Greek historians and geographers of the second half of the 1st millennium BC. e. called Matiana or Matiena.
In this respect, the connection of this region with the ancient state of Mitanni is interesting.
Mitanni (Khanigalbat) is an ancient state (XVI-XIII centuries BC) on the territory of Northern Mesopotamia and adjacent regions. The population's official languages were Hurrian and Akkadian. The capital of Mitanni - Vashshukanni (Khoshkani) was located at the source of the Khabur River. It is believed that this city stood on the site of the modern city of Serekani in Syria. Mitanni has established himself on the East. arena in a 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 to the Egyptian pharaohs. Meanwhile, in the Mitanni language, an Indo-European substratum is obvious: the binding of the texts of treaties with the Hittites with the names of the deities Mithra, Varuna, Indra and oaths to these gods indicate that the Mitanians accepted the myths and beliefs that dominated the Indo-European group.
The Mitannian kings bore Indo-Iranian names along with the second Hurrian ones, and worshiped, among others, Indo-Iranian gods: the distribution 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.
German researcher A. Kammenhuber managed to show that all Indo-Iranian terms and proper names identified in the Mitannian tradition reflect not Indo-Iranian, but Hurrian pronunciation: the dynasty and its supporters preserved 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 true speakers of the Indo-Iranian language were possible, among which, obviously, the founders of the dynasty were also included.
The most likely localization is the area near the lake. Urmia in northwestern Iran, in an area that is still the Greek historians and geographers of the second half of the 1st millennium BC. e. called Matiana or Matiena.
The Mitannian Aryan language is the language of a part of the population of the ancient kingdom of Mitanni, which, according to modern data, is usually referred to as Indo-European - Aryan languages (however, the exact position in this branch of Indo-European languages has not been fully established). The name "Mitanni Aryan" is used to avoid confusion, since the main and official language of the kingdom of Mitanni was Hurrian.
The Mitanni language has features that are archaic already for Indian Vedic texts, and 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 Mativatsa approx. 1380 BC e. the deities Mitra, Varuna, Indra and Nasatya (Ashvins) are mentioned.
In the text of Kikkuli, such terms as aika (Skt. Eka, one), tera (Skt. Tri, three), panza (pancha, five), satta (sapta, seven), na (nava, nine) are mentioned. , vartana (vartana, circle). The numeral aika (one) is an indication that the Mitannian Aryan language was closer to the Indo-Aryan languages than to other languages of the Aryan branch.
Another text mentions the words babru (Skt. Babhrú, brown), parita (palita, gray) and pinkara (pingala, red). Mitannian warriors were designated by the term marya - a similar term was found in Sanskrit.
Separate borrowings from the Mitannian-Aryan ones penetrated in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e. even in Akkadian: babrunnu (horse color), mariannu (charioteer) (compare OE márya ‛(young man), magannu (gift) (OE maghá), susānu (horse trainer) (OE .-ind. aśvá sani).
1) "Mitannian 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) "Mitannian Aryan" is a dialect of the 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 having some later, non-Iranian features.
3) "Mitannian Aryan" belongs to the branch intermediate between Iranian and Indian, namely to Dardo - Kafir.
This branch, which has now survived only in Northeastern Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kashmir, is considered the first in the time of separation from the Indo-Iranian community, and in the time of migration to the Iranian-Indian region. It is possible that dialects of this branch were initially more widespread in Iran, until they were supplanted by the later waves of the Iranian-speaking tribes proper, which appeared here no later than the last centuries of the 2nd millennium BC. e. All these are the hallmarks of the "Mitannian Aryan". It should be noted that Indo-Iranianisms in culture, language and proper names are found only among the Hurrians - the Mitannian group.
It is worth noting that the Mitanni army possessed a high technique of horse breeding and chariot fighting, which probably made it possible to unite the small Hurrian tribal groups of Mesopotamia and subjugate the Semitic (Amorean - Akkadian) city-states throughout the space between the Zagross and Amanos mountain lines.There is little data on the internal political and social structure of Mitanni, it is believed that it was not a monolithic empire, but a loose alliance of nomes who united around Washshukanni, the capital of Mitanni - Hanigalbat, who paid tribute to the Mitanni king and sent military contingents to help him. "People of the Hurri" - probably the military nobility, played a very significant role under the king and were often mentioned together with the king in state treaties. The charioteers - the marianne - played an important role in the war and in government.
The chariots themselves, as a kind of weapon and the tactics of chariot fighting, were undoubtedly borrowed from the Indo-Iranians, but the chariots at this time, judging by their names, were pure Hurrians. The term marianna comes from the ancient Indian marya - "husband, youth." This is proved by the fact that the institution of the Mariann existed not only among the Mitannians who experienced Indo-Iranian influence, but also among all the Hurrians in general, including Alalah and Arrapkhe. And it should be noted that these Marianna were not "feudal nobility", but palace officials who received their chariots from state warehouses.
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Mitannian kingdom
Lake Van is located in the south of the Armenian Highlands, in Eastern Anatolia, near the Iranian border. A natural reservoir of significant area is located at an altitude of over one and a half kilometers, it is surrounded by mountains on all sides. To the south of the lake there are the high ranges of the Eastern Taurus, in the east - the plateau and individual peaks of the Kurdish mountains, in the northeast - the Aladaglar ridge, and in the west - volcanic cones.
Lake Van occupies a deep - about 150 m - tectonic fissure. It marks the collision zone of the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates, which explains the increased seismic and volcanic activity in the region. The extinct Syupkhan stratovolcano and the active one, Nemrut-dag, rise on the shores of the lake. The last time Syupkhan - the second largest volcano after Ararat in Turkey and throughout the Armenian Highlands - erupted about 100 thousand years ago, and Nemrut - in 1692.
An earlier eruption of Nemrut, which occurred in the Pleistocene about 250 thousand years ago, resulted in the formation of Lake Van itself, when a multi-kilometer lava flow from the west blocked the flow of water from the Van Basin into the neighboring one.
Van is a drainless 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 strongly alkaline (pH 9.7-9.8). All of these substances are used in the manufacture of synthetic detergents. And today, salt is mined on the lake for the needs of the household chemicals industry: 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 outwardly resembles an ordinary herring. The Turks call it darek, other names are inchi-mullet (pearl mullet) and van-shahkuli (van fish). This "herring" can live both 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, as its caviar is considered a delicacy.
Other inhabitants of the lake are 103 species of phytoplankton and 36 species of zooplankton.
A Van cat lives on the shore. This is an ordinary domestic cat that has found itself in the wild and has adapted to living near a salt pond. He has white fur, blue or amber eyes (often one of each color). The cat learned to swim in the lake and fish. As a sign of respect for such an amazing animal, the inhabitants of the city of Van put up two large statues of white wonder cats.
But locals are not only engaged in soda extraction and serving tourists. The presence of a large lake in this region of the Armenian Highlands somewhat softens the climate, which contributes to gardening: around the lake there are many apple, pomegranate and peach trees.
The water in the lake is considered curative, and those who suffer from rheumatism or arthritis take baths in it.
Nature has divided the lake into two parts: the southern - large and deep and the northern - smaller and smaller, connected by a kind of 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 there was Tushpa - the capital of the state of Urartu. Van already bore this name: it comes from the Armenian word “van” - “village”, or simply “inhabited place”. At the same time, a powerful fortress Van was built on the shore of the lake.
In the VIII century. under King Menua, Urartu became the most powerful state in Asia Minor. A 70-kilometer canal has survived to this day, a unique hydraulic structure, built at the behest of the king to supply Tushpa with fresh water. For 2500 years, it was repaired only once - in 1950.
After being defeated by the Assyrians in the 7th century. BC e. Urartu is gradually declining and ceases 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 Greater 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, cleanses and regenerates clothes. However, due to this admixture of soda, the water of the lake is not drinkable. " Tospistas is one of the old names for Van.
In 364, the army of the Sassanian king Shapur II came to the shore of Lake Van and destroyed towns and villages. In the X century. these lands were part of the Armenian Vaspurakan kingdom.
By 1022 the whole region was annexed by Byzantium, but not for long. At the end of the XI century. The Seljuks defeated the army of the Byzantine emperor Roman IV Diogenes and captured the entire area 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 in the Battle of Chaldyran northeast of Lake Van.
Subsequently, the Armenian population of the shores of the lake underwent 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.
On the shores and islands of the lake, architectural monuments of the Armenian presence in the local area have been preserved, the most famous is the ruins of the Church of the Holy Cross and the port of the times of the Armenian kings Artsrunids (X-XI centuries) on the Akhtamar island. The church - a monument of Armenian medieval architecture made of red tuff, decorated with frescoes and stone carvings - was the own temple of the Vaspurakan dynasty. This is the only building of the palace complex of King Gagik II that has survived to this day. Next to it there are Armenian khachkars - gravestones.
Until the beginning of the XX century. the church remained part of the monastery complex, during the First World War it was abandoned, restored by the Turkish authorities in 2005-2007. and turned into a museum. In 2010, the Turkish government allowed the church to hold services once a year.
The city of Van is the administrative center of the eponymous silt. Almost nothing has survived in the city reminding that Christians settled here relatively recently. Seljuk Turks live in the city itself, and the villages around Lake Van are entirely Kurdish. 
general information
Location: eastern Turkey.
Administrative affiliation
: silt Bitlis and Van.
Origin: dam-tectonic.
Mineralization type
: salty.
Water balance: drainless; flowing rivers - Bendimakhi, Zeylan-Deresi, Karasu, Michinger, Khosap, Guzelsu.
Cities: Van - 370 190 people. (2012), Ercish - 173 795 people. (2015), Edremit - 118 786 people, Tatvan - 67 035 people. (2012), Muradie - 50 981 people, Akhlat - 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 north-east to south-west, 80 km from north-west to south-east.
Coastline length
: 430 km
Volume: 607 km 3.
Average depth: 171 m.
Maximum depth
: 451 m.
Urez: 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 the continental desert, mountainous.
Summers are dry, rainy and windy in winter.
Average Air in January (Van)
: -3.5 ° C.
Average temperature in July (Van)
: + 22.2 ° C.
Average annual rainfall (Van)
: 387 mm.
Relative humidity (Van)
: 60-65%.
Economy
Minerals
: table salt, soda, thermal springs.
Industry: salt production.
Agriculture
: crop production (olives, peaches, apples, pomegranates), livestock (mountain and pasture and pasture - sheep and goats, fishing).
Service sector
: tourism, trade, transport (shipping).
sights
Natural
Akhtamar, Charpanak, Adir, Kus and Gadir islands
Volcanoes Syupkhan (4058 m) and Nemrut (2948 m)
Historical
Fortress Van (city of Van, IX-VII centuries BC)
Irrigation canal of King Menua (VIII century BC)
Achaemenid rock inscription (V century BC)
Church of the Holy Cross (Surb Khach, 915-921) and the ruins of the port (X century) on Akhtamar Island
Ruins of a monastery (Adyr island, founded in the 11th century, the remains of a 16th century church, a non-residential building-zhamatun, second half of the 18th century)
Ruins of monasteries Surb Tovmas and Garmirak (Deveboinu peninsula)
Surb Stepanos (Muradiye)
Surb Marinos (Michinger River)
Church ruins (Salmanaga, Elmaji and Kiyidyuzu villages)
Curious facts
Apparently, the earliest mention of the cleaning properties of Van water was made on the copper cladding of the Balavat Gate, an artifact of the era of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (859-824 BC). This British Museum exhibit says that the king "plunged into the waters of the Urartu Sea and washed the bloody sword in its waters." The Urartu Sea is one of the ancient names of Lake Van.
In 1991, scientists discovered microbioliths 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 ears of the Van cat are painted in apricot color. According to a local legend, the Van cat often swims in such a way that only the ears are visible above the surface of the water, and therefore, over time, they were colored by the sun itself. Exporting these strange cats from Turkey without special permission is prohibited by law and punishable by a huge fine.
Lake Van is located on the Ankara (Turkey) - 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 found confirmation of the crucial role that Nemrut volcano played in the lives of the ancient inhabitants of the lake shores. Nemrut turned out to be the source of obsidian, volcanic glass, the main Stone Age material for making weapons and tools. Analysis of finds in Mesopotamia and around the 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. So it was proved that Van from ancient times was on the busy trade routes.
Local legends associate the name of the Nemrut volcano with the name of the mythical ruler Nimrod, mentioned in the Bible. Allegedly, the king angered the gods with something, and they brought down the mountain on which his castle stood, forming on this place Lake Van. The construction of a fortress on the Golan Heights, built in the Middle Ages, is attributed to the same legendary ruler.
The Urartian king Menua sought to leave a memory of himself for centuries and for this purpose ordered to carve a description of his exploits 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, used as a foundation for construction in the 5th century. The text is very typical for the rulers of that time: “I set the country of Babanakhi on fire. I conquered the country of Ulibani and set it on fire. I conquered and burned the land of Dirgu. People - some he killed, others were taken away alive. "
One of the reliefs on the outside of the church wall on Akhtamar Island 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 some kind of monster lived 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 in the salt soda lake. However, an organization has been set up to study the "Lake Van Monster" at the University of Van.
