Lake Meke, The World’s Evil Eye, Dried Up

Meke Lake, located within the borders of Konya’s Karapınar District and called the ‘evil eye bead of the world’, has dried up by 99 percent. Salt layers formed in the crater lake, which dried out due to lack of rainfall and withdrawal of groundwater.

Meke is currently in a very bad condition like the lakes and wetlands in central Anatolia. In the course of time, many wetlands have dried out. This is not only due to heavy human use but also to the ongoing drought. While the average annual precipitation in the region was 320 millimetres per square meter, it has fallen below 300 millimetres in the last few years. We need to wait for the rainy period to achieve balance.