Dried almond trees in the villages near the lake. Between 10 and 15 years ago, there was water in this area. The salt line on the horizon used to be full of water, and water was much closer to this village.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.
