The Aral Sea a landlocked endorheic sea in Central Asia, straddles the boundary between Uzbekistan to the south and west and Kazakhstan to the north and east.
The name roughly translates as “Sea of Islands,” referring to more than 1,000 islands of 2.5 acres (one hectare) or more that dotted its waters.
Once the fourth-largest lake on Earth, the Aral Sea shrank to less than 50 percent its original size in a matter of decades.
This reduction came as a result of the diversion of its in-flowing rivers, the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya, by the Soviet Union for irrigation purposes.
This loss of water turned the once freshwater lake into one as salty as the ocean.
By the end of the twentieth century, the once great sea had been broken into two separate lakes.
Its entire ecosystem suffered a near collapse due not only to diversion practices, but also to extreme pollution resulting from biological weapons testing during the Cold War, industrial projects, and fertilizer runoff.
The health and livelihoods of thousands of people living in its ecosystem were severely comprised.
Aral Sea