Aral Sea

Formerly a salt lake in Central Asia

Khwarazm or Chorasmia is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the east by the Kyzylkum Desert, on the south by the Karakum Desert, and on the west by the Ustyurt Plateau. It was the center of the Iranian Khwarezmian civilization until the 9th century, when Turkic tribes moved into and ruled the lands. A series of kingdoms such as the Afrighid dynasty and the Anushtegin dynasty, whose capitals were (among others) Kath, Gurganj (now Konye-Urgench) andfrom the 16th century onKhiva. Today Khwarazm belongs part

desert on the seabed once occupied by the Aral Sea

species of fish

extant lake

former lake

dam in Kazakhstan

protected area

lowland depression around the Aral Sea and Northern Caspian Sea

thumb|Ships left stranded in the desert in the bay of Zhalanash Zhalanash (, Jalanaş), is a village in south central Kazakhstan. Previously a fishing village on the Aral Sea, Zhalanash now lies several kilometers from its shores. In recent years, it had become a tourism location for its old harbor, where several ship hulls had been left standing in the desert by the retreating sea. As of 2017, these hulls have been dismantled for scrap metal and only the bottoms remain. The town's economy is focused around camel herding.

lake in Kazakhstan, part of former Aral Sea

smallpox outbreak from a Soviet bioweapon test

Akespe () is a village in the Aral District, Kyzylorda Region, Kazakhstan. It is part of the Kosaman Rural District (KATO code - 433246200). Population:

Kerderi is a group of abandoned settlements located on the dried seafloor of what was once the Aral Sea, in Kazakhstan. Kerderi is thought to have been inhabited around the fourteenth century, when water levels were low enough to expose dry land. It is not known when Kerderi was abandoned. However, some objects from Kerderi have been carbon-dated to as late as the start of the sixteenth century and historical evidence suggests that the Aral Sea began slowly refilling after 1570, when the Amu Darya river resumed its flow into the Aral. Kerderi was completely flooded; at 1960 water levels, the s