Lake Eğirdir

Eğirdir (Turkish: Eğirdir Gölü, formerly Eğridir) is a lake in the Lakes Region of Turkey. The town of Eğirdir lies near its southern end, 107 kilometers (67 mi) north of Antalya. With an area of 482 square kilometres (186 sq mi) it is the fourth largest lake in Turkey, and the second largest freshwater lake.

Lake Eğirdir
The lake with the town (on the left) and the two islands with the causeway
Lake Eğirdir
Coordinates38°03′24″N 30°51′58″E
Basin countriesTurkey
Surface area482 km2 (186 sq mi)
Surface elevation917 m (3,009 ft)
Lake Eğirdir

Name

The town and the lake were formerly called Eğridir, a Turkish pronunciation of the town's old Greek name Akrotiri.Eğridir means "it is crooked" in Turkish, so to remove the negative connotations, in the mid-1980s the "i" and the "r" were transposed in a new official name, thus creating Eğirdir, a name that evokes spinning and flowers,[1] although many people in Turkey still call both the town and the lake by its former name.

Islands

Lake Eğirdir has two islands, connected to the mainland by a long causeway into the town of Eğirdir:

  • Can Ada (meaning "Life Island") the smaller of the two islands.
  • Yeşil Ada ("Green Island," formerly known as Nis) - until 1923, was home to a Greek community living in stone and timber houses.

See also

References
  1. Turkey. Lonely Planet. 1999. p. 315.


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