AT A GLANCE
Why go?
Kestel Gölü (Kestel Lake) is a vanished karstic lake in Bucak district, Burdur province, Turkey — a once-shallow freshwater basin of 25 square kilometres at 779 metres elevation, now largely dry farmland that still tells an extraordinary geological story. The site sits at the lowest point of the Kestel tectono-karstic depression at the foot of the Western Taurus Mountains, and it remains a place of fascination for anyone interested in how water shapes — and is taken from — the landscape.↗↗
What draws visitors here is not a conventional lakeside experience but something more unusual: dramatic seasonal transformations, visible sinkholes where water plunges underground, and a living reminder of the Göller Yöresi (Lake Region) that once sustained rich wetland ecosystems. The karst features and sweeping views toward the Taurus ridges make it a compelling stop for geologically curious travellers passing between Antalya and Burdur.↗↗
A Vanished Lake with a Secret Underground Journey
Until the 1960s, Kestel Gölü was a broad, shallow freshwater lake fed by streams descending from Kestel Mountain and by underground karst springs. Its surface area reached approximately 25 square kilometres, with a maximum depth of only four metres — an expansive mirror in the depression between limestone hills. In 1988, Turkey's State Hydraulic Works (DSİ) launched a drainage programme to convert the lakebed into agricultural land. Sinkholes were deliberately opened to funnel the water underground, and the lake steadily disappeared.
