The Aral Sea has started shrinking due to a water division project initiated in 1960 to develop the desert region around the lake.
Location of the Aral Sea:
- It is an endorheic lake situated between Kazakhstan (north) and Uzbekistan (south).
- It was once one of Central Asia’s large saltwater lakes but is now shrinking.
- It drains parts of Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, and was formed at the end of the Neogene Period (23 to 2.6 million years ago).
- The name Aral means the “Sea of Islands,” derived from Mongolic and Turkic languages.
- The Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers once flowed into it.
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