Aji Chay, a river that is barely visible in this 2019 photograph, passes underneath a historic bridge in Tabriz, Iran, and flows into Lake Urmia. Droughts have slowed its flow to a trickle.Iran's Lake Urmia was once the second-largest saltwater lake in the world, covering more than 2,000 square miles at its deepest in the 1990s. In the past two decades, the lake has dried out, shrinking at times to less than 20% of its average size. It's not a story of climate change, though that certainly contributed.
