Lake Büyükçekmece

Lake Bueyuekcekmece sits on the western edge of Istanbul and is the megacity's most important drinking-water source. Once a shallow bay of the Marmara Sea, it was sealed off in the 1980s by a barrage built at its narrowest point and deepened for water supply. The lagoon and its reed shores are an Important Bird Area: spoonbills, Dalmatian pelicans, flamingos and tens of thousands of waterbirds in winter rest here on the migration route between the Balkans and Anatolia. The south shore, where Sinan's old Ottoman bridge crosses the outflow, gives the best view of the flocks and of a wetland that has survived in the middle of the city.