Salt lake · Turkey
Lake Van
Largest lake in Turkey
- Area
- 3,569km²
- Max depth
- 171m
- Average depth
- 170m
- Elevation
- 1,645m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 592km
- Volume
- 607km³
Lake Van is a salt lake in Turkey. It covers 3,569 km². On average it is 170 m deep, and 171 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 1,645 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Lake Van?
The water is warmest in August, around 23 °C at the surface, and coldest in February, around 3 °C. The surface averages 20 °C or more from July to September: comfortable for most swimmers.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 30 °C on average in August and -2 °C in January. The driest month is August (4 mm of rain), the wettest April (81 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (212 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 | 3 | 4 | -2 | -11 | 64 | 11 | 4.5 | 11 |
| February | 3 | 3 | 0 | -7 | 62 | 11 | 5.2 | 12 |
| March | 5 | 6 | 6 | -1 | 77 | 12 | 5.7 | 14 |
| April | 9 | 11 | 11 | 3 | 81 | 13 | 6.8 | 14 |
| May | 14 | 16 | 17 | 8 | 52 | 11 | 9.1 | 12 |
| June | 19 | 21 | 24 | 14 | 16 | 4 | 12.8 | 12 |
| July | 22 | 23 | 29 | 18 | 6 | 2 | 13.1 | 11 |
| August | 23 | 23 | 30 | 18 | 4 | 1 | 12.3 | 11 |
| September | 21 | 22 | 24 | 14 | 11 | 2 | 10.5 | 11 |
| October | 16 | 19 | 16 | 7 | 52 | 7 | 7.2 | 11 |
| November | 11 | 14 | 7 | 0 | 55 | 8 | 5.3 | 10 |
| December | 6 | 8 | 1 | -7 | 68 | 11 | 3.8 | 10 |
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 299 years before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 17,046 km² of land.
- About 64 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
- Its shoreline is 2.8 times longer than a circle of the same area: plenty of bays and inlets.
Around the shore
What's around Lake Van
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- 36beaches and swimming spots
Kadınlar Plajı, Sarıkum Sahili, Adilcevaz Bozkırlar Denizay Aile Plajı, Edremit Halk Plajı and 32 more
- 13campsites
Deniz Camping, under trees, cleaned 2025.07, Alman Kampı, Private camp 400 per vehicle, Özgür Camping and 8 more
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- 1marinas and slipways
Ahlat Yat Limanı
- 4ferry piers
Van, Tatvan Iskele, Ahtamar Iskelesi
- 5viewpoints
View on the Urartian adobe castle., Kiz Kalesi, lunapark van
- 22hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Tasar Royal Hotel, Tatvan Öğretmenevi, Park Hotel, Otel Karaman (👍), Taşar Royal Hotel and 17 more
- —fishing spots
- 65restaurants and cafés
Towns on the shore
- Tatvan73,222 people
- Ahlat64,695 people
- Adilcevaz52,781 people
- Gevaş11,879 people
- Edremit7,464 people
- Kırklar Mahallesi4,351 people
- Bahçedere1,072 people
- Akçıra1,018 people
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Van Ferit Melen Airport (VAN), 55 km in a straight line.
Car hire at VAN airport (Van)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 | -1.7 | 0.4 | 5.5 | 11.0 | 16.7 | 24.0 | 29.3 | 29.6 | 24.0 | 16.0 | 7.1 | 0.8 |
| 2020 | +0.6 | −1.2 | +2.2 | −0.9 | +0.7 | ±0.0 | −0.1 | −1.6 | +2.5 | +3.4 | +0.7 | +1.4 |
| 2021 | +2.8 | +2.8 | −0.7 | +3.6 | +4.7 | +3.1 | +1.4 | ±0.0 | −0.2 | +0.2 | +2.5 | +1.5 |
| 2022 | −1.2 | +1.2 | −4.0 | +2.4 | −1.0 | +1.9 | +1.6 | +2.1 | +1.8 | +1.9 | +1.7 | +2.9 |
| 2023 | +3.6 | −2.2 | +2.8 | +0.4 | +0.2 | +0.3 | +1.1 | +1.9 | +1.7 | ±0.0 | +2.6 | +3.8 |
| 2024 | +1.9 | +1.5 | +0.1 | +4.9 | −0.6 | +2.3 | +0.4 | +1.5 | +0.6 | −0.3 | +0.5 | +1.4 |
| 2025 | +3.4 | −1.3 | +3.2 | +1.6 | +3.0 | +1.4 | +1.2 | +2.5 | −0.3 | +0.7 | +4.9 | +1.2 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
IranAbout 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 (Q126307) · 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.
