The Aral Sea

lake · Central Asia · environmental disaster · water

Once a thriving sea. The Aral Sea was a huge saltwater lake between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, full of islands and fish, and people relied on it for their livelihoods.

It vanished into desert. Starting in the 1960s, the Aral Sea began shrinking and by 2007, most of it had dried up into empty desert, one of the biggest environmental changes on Earth.

Named for its islands. The name 'Aral Sea' comes from old Mongolic and Turkic words meaning 'Sea of Islands' because it once had so many islands scattered across its waters.

Fed by distant rivers. The Aral Sea's water came from rivers that flowed through many countries including Afghanistan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, making it part of a giant water system.

Human actions drained it. People diverted the rivers that fed the Aral Sea to water farmland, which caused the water to disappear so fast that the sea couldn't refill itself.