Nemrut (, Sarakn, "Mountain spring", , ) is a dormant volcano in Eastern Turkey, close to Lake Van. The volcano is named after King Nimrod who is said to have ruled this area in about 2100 BC. The most powerful eruptions of Nemrut occurred in the Pleistocene. Many small eruptions occurred during the Holocene, the last in 1650. The top of the volcano is a large caldera hosting three crater lakes. Overview Nemrut is a polygenic stratovolcano located in the collision zone of the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates, which determines the seismic and volcanic activity in the region. The collision of these plates began in the Middle Eocene and closed the stretch of water, which in the Mesozoic formed the Tethys Ocean. Nemrut, along with three other extinct volcanoes of eastern Turkey: Ararat, Tendürek and Süphan, is located in the area of a complex fault, which runs along the boundary of the Arabian and Eurasian plates in the territory of the Armenian Highland. It is the westernmost of these volcanoes, the only one that remains active, and generally the only volcano in Anatolia, which erupted in the historical period. Nemrut is located 10 km north of the city Tatvan, in the north-western shore of Lake Van. Nemrut was probably formed in the early Quaternary Period, about 1 million years ago. It showed the greatest activity in the Pleistocene, with regular eruptions occurring in the Holocene. In the middle Pleistocene, about 250,000 years ago, a major eruption formed a lava flow over 60 km long, which blocked the water discharge from the Van basin and formed Lake Van, the world's largest alkali endorheic lake. In the same period, the conical top of the volcano collapsed inward, forming an 8.3×7 km caldera. Later, the freshwater Lake Nemrut formed inside the caldera. Subsequent eruptions separated a small lake Ilı from Lake Nemrut. Nemrut volcano has an elliptical shape, its size at the base is 27×18 km, and its center contains 377.5 km3 of volcanic materials. The caldera of Nemrut is the largest in Turkey, the fourth-largest in Europe and sixteenth-largest in the world. History of study Etymology Locals link the name of the volcano with the legendary ruler Nimrod, who is credited with the construction of the Tower of Babel. Turkish chronicles of the 16th century reproduce a local legend as follows: Medieval chronicles Eruptions of Nemrut are mentioned in Armenian sources