The return of a once-dying lake
By Peter Schwartzstein26th February 2021
Lake Urmia in Iran was once the world's second largest salt lake, but in a matter of years it shrank to almost nothing. Now, the lake is slowly coming back to life.
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It was the slow lengthening of the boat pier that Solmaz Daryani remembers as the most obvious sign that something was amiss.
Until the late 1990s, her family's hotel stood steps away from Lake Urmia's northern shoreline. Bit by bit, though, the waters began to retreat. At first, her uncle extended the pier 100 metres (330ft) out to facilitate guests' access to his boats. The next year, he built it out twice as far. Eventually, with the lake retreating at record speed, he had to admit defeat.