Lake Balık

For things that will never happen, we say “when the fish climbs the poplar.” Yet in the mountains of Ağrı, the fish has climbed not a poplar but all the way to 2,250 meters… And how modest to name a lake after its fish, isn’t it? No legendary queen, no hero, no god; only the fish that swim in it. With this plain name (balık simply means fish), Lake Balık has for centuries whispered the same thing to shepherds, nomads and travelers who have lost their way: There is life here.