Hazar Gölü (also called Gölcük) is a long, deep lake in a tectonic basin south of Elazığ, sitting at around 1,200 metres above sea level. The road from the city climbs through a pass and the lake appears suddenly below — narrow, steel-blue, hemmed in by bare hills. It is the closest thing the area has to a hill station, and on summer weekends half of Elazığ seems to drive down for the day.
The lake sits directly on the East Anatolian Fault, and that geology has left it with a strange story: a 13th-century Armenian monastery is said to have sunk beneath the water during a series of earthquakes, and on calm days locals will tell you the ruins are sometimes visible from the surface. Whether or not you spot anything, the setting has the still, slightly eerie quality of deep mountain water.
The shoreline is lined with small resorts and tea gardens, and the village of Sivrice on the southern end is the usual stop, with restaurants serving grilled fish straight from the lake. The water stays cold even in midsummer but it is swimmable, and a fish lunch followed by tea by the shore is the standard way to spend an afternoon here. Reckon on about 45 minutes by car from Elazığ.