Lake Urmia was once one of the biggest saltwater lakes in the world

Lake Urmia is located between East and West Azerbaijan Provinces in northwest Iran and is home to 120 islands. Though it was once the largest lake in the Middle East and the sixth-largest salt water lake in the world, at 5,000 square kilometers, it is estimated that the lake’s surface area has shrunk by 90% since the 1970s, much of that within the last two decades.