Giant sinkholes dot the landscape in Turkey's Karapinar - in pictures

Farmers extracting groundwater have caused the water table to drop by two metres

An aerial view of a massive sinkhole near the town of Karapinar, in Konya province, Central Anatolia, Turkey. All pictures Getty Images

A sinkhole into which part of a road has collapsed in the village of Ekmekci, near Karapinar.

Konya is the heart of Turkey's agriculture sector, and extreme drought conditions over the past two years have taken a heavy toll on farmers and the land.

A sinkhole close to a village near Karapinar. Lack of rain is forcing farmers to tap in to groundwater supplies, often with illegal wells, to sustain their crops.

Geologists Arif Delikana, left, and Fetullah Arik inspect a sinkhole near Karapinar.

Sinkholes dot the arid Karapinar landscape.

The tiny figures of geologists Fetullah Arik and Arif Delikana illustrate the scale of a giant sinkhole.

An aerial shot of a giant sinkhole in Karapinar farmland. Farmers extracting groundwater have caused the water table to drop by two metres.

As underground water levels fall, this creates cavities into which surface material collapses, creating sinkholes.

With the number of sinkholes in Karapinar increasing, concerns are growing that they will appear in residential areas.

An aerial view of drought-blighted landscape around Karapinar.

A sinkhole in the middle of a field. Ongoing drought and problems with sinkholes have raised questions about the viability of agriculture in parts of Konya.

Konya is said to have the second largest number of sinkholes in the world, after Florida in the US.

A dramatic view of a gaping sinkhole into which arable land has collapsed in Karapinar.

Geology professor Fetullah Arik, who heads the Sinkhole Application And Research Centre at the Konya Technical University, takes measurements. He says the number of sinkholes has doubled since 2020.

Geologists Fetullah Arik and Arif Delikana stand at the edge of a massive sinkhole in a field in Karapinar. While Konya produces more than 2.5 million tonnes of grain a year, officials predict this will fall 5.5 per cent in 2021.

More than 600 sinkholes now dot the landscape around Karapinar.

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