Reservoir · Turkey
Lake Büyükçekmece
Lake in Istanbul Province, Turkey
- Area
- 23.5km²
- Average depth
- 6.9m
- Elevation
- 2m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 36km
- Volume
- 0.161km³
Lake Büyükçekmece is a reservoir in Turkey. It covers 23.5 km². On average it is 6.9 m deep. Its surface lies 2 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
The water
How warm is Lake Büyükçekmece?
The water is warmest in July, around 25 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 7 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from May to September: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 29 °C on average in August and 8 °C in January. The driest month is July (20 mm of rain), the wettest December (82 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (68 readings). Shallow bays and beaches are often warmer.
From above
The whole lake from space
Month by month
The year at the lake, month by month
Not a forecast: these are averages over many years. Water is the 2013–2021 average; air, rain, sun and wind are the 1991–2020 average.
Water: 2013–2021 averageClimate: 1991–2020 average
| Month | Water°C | Water high°C | Air high°C | Air low°C | Rainmm | Rainy daysdays | Sunh/day | Windkm/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 79 | 12 | 2.1 | 19 |
| February | 8 | 9 | 9 | 4 | 68 | 11 | 2.8 | 20 |
| March | 11 | 13 | 12 | 5 | 53 | 10 | 4.6 | 19 |
| April | 15 | 18 | 16 | 8 | 42 | 8 | 6.7 | 17 |
| May | 20 | 22 | 21 | 14 | 35 | 7 | 8.7 | 15 |
| June | 24 | 25 | 26 | 19 | 36 | 7 | 10.1 | 15 |
| July | 25 | 26 | 29 | 21 | 20 | 4 | 10.9 | 18 |
| August | 24 | 25 | 29 | 22 | 22 | 4 | 9.7 | 20 |
| September | 22 | 23 | 25 | 19 | 54 | 7 | 7.0 | 18 |
| October | 17 | 20 | 20 | 14 | 70 | 9 | 4.6 | 18 |
| November | 13 | 15 | 15 | 10 | 63 | 9 | 3.0 | 18 |
| December | 9 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 82 | 12 | 2.0 | 19 |
Water: LakeTEMP (Landsat 8, 2013–2021). Air, rain, sun and wind: NASA POWER, 1991–2020 averages. A rainy day has at least 1 mm of rain. Sunshine hours are derived from measured solar radiation.
Size & depth
How big, how deep
- On average, water stays in the lake for about 10 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 604 km² of land.
- About 6.0 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Büyükçekmece
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 2beaches and swimming spots
Büyükçekmece Halk Plajı, Mimarsinan Sahili
- —campsites
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 1marinas and slipways
Kıyı İstanbul Marina
- 1ferry piers
İDO Büyükçekmece Terminali
- —viewpoints
- 7hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Volkan Konakları, Marina Park Hotel, Eser Otel, Ala Deniz Hotel, Turkuaz Boutique Hotel and 2 more
- —fishing spots
- 100restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Büyükçekmece163,140 people
- Mimarsinan31,002 people
- Tepecik21,699 people
- Muratbey1,345 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: İstanbul Airport (IST), 26 km in a straight line.
Car hire at ISL airport (Istanbul)Discover Cars · Affiliate linkOpenStreetMap is built by volunteers: when a number is low, it may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
Recent years
How each month compared
Afternoon high on the shore. The first row is the reference, the 1991–2020 average in °C; the years below show the difference from it: warmer in orange, cooler in blue.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991–2020 average | 8.2 | 9.1 | 11.7 | 15.7 | 21.1 | 25.9 | 28.8 | 29.0 | 25.1 | 19.7 | 14.8 | 10.1 |
| 2020 | +0.4 | +1.6 | +1.0 | −0.6 | −0.1 | ±0.0 | −0.4 | +0.1 | +1.9 | +3.2 | −0.1 | +2.7 |
| 2021 | +2.3 | +1.2 | −1.8 | −1.1 | +0.3 | −1.1 | +0.8 | +1.3 | −0.8 | −1.4 | +1.0 | +1.4 |
| 2022 | −0.4 | +0.7 | −3.9 | +0.6 | +0.3 | −0.3 | −0.9 | +0.3 | +0.2 | +0.5 | +2.2 | +3.0 |
| 2023 | +3.1 | +0.8 | +0.6 | ±0.0 | −2.2 | −0.9 | +2.0 | +1.3 | +1.4 | +2.6 | +3.1 | +2.7 |
| 2024 | +1.7 | +2.7 | +1.7 | +3.2 | −1.4 | +2.9 | +1.8 | +1.2 | +1.5 | +1.3 | ±0.0 | +1.7 |
| 2025 | +2.7 | −1.9 | +2.7 | −1.0 | +0.3 | +1.6 | +2.7 | +0.2 | +0.5 | +0.3 | +3.2 | +1.8 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
About these numbers
| Outline, area, depth, volume | HydroLAKES v1.0 (Messager et al. 2016) · CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|
| Water temperature and ice | LakeTEMP v1 (Korver et al. 2024), Landsat 8 2013–2021 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Air, rain, sun, wind | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 · public domain |
| Names and description | Wikidata (Q1021881) · CC0 |
| Around the shore | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
