Cheap moon view: Central Turkey's dry lake offers lunar-like vista

There's no need to board a spaceship to get a feel for the moon's surface – just take a quick journey to Lake Tecer in Turkey’s central Sivas province, which completely dries up during warm summer months to eerily resemble the terrain of Earth's only orbiter.

The lake, located some 5 kilometers (3 miles) from downtown Sivas, is covered with a thick layer of salt, which some say resembles the moon’s surface.

Local resident Vahap Seyhan, who heads the local association for village headmen and is a farmer by profession, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the lake started drying up in the early 1990s.

“There was splendid wildlife here before 1990. It was a magnificent natural wonder, almost resembled a bird sanctuary,” Seyhan said, adding that it hosted a wide variety of species, including ruddy shelducks, ducks, cranes and dozens of domestic and migratory birds.

Noting that the municipality had attempted to revive the lake’s wildlife in the 2000s by connecting pipes through Mount Tecer, Seyhan noted that the project only lasted for a few years and the water failed to fill the lake by 2008.

The lake, which experts say dried up due to climate change, has water with a depth of around half a meter in the winter months but completely dries up by June and is left with a thick layer of salt.