Urumiah

Urumiah, or URMIA, a town of the Persian province of Azerbaijan, 10 miles W. of the lake of Urmia, in a wide and fertile plain; pop. 32,000. Urumiah, the seat of a Nestorian bishop, and of American and Anglican missions, was said to be the birthplace of Zoroaster (q.v.). The Lake of Urmia (4500 feet above the sea), lying in a depression between the Kurdish mountains and the hills that bound the south end of the Caspian Sea, is about 90 miles by 25, and contains numerous islands. It has no outlet, but has many feeders, some 80 to 150 miles long; the water is intensely salt, on an average only 12 or 15 feet deep, the greatest depth sounded as yet being 40 feet; fish are not found, but plenty of small crustaceans, on which various kinds of water-birds feed.