The Aral: sea and land

S.K. Krivonogov

Only half a century ago the Aral Sea was the world's forth largest landlocked water basin. Its warm saline waters were full of life. However, very shortly afterwards, in the 1960s, the Aral began to shrink very quickly after the rivers Amu-Darya and Syr-Darya that fed it were diverted by irrigation projects. By the beginning of this century, the lake's surface area shrank to one-forth and its volume to one-tenth.
This process has not stopped yet: the Aral Sea continues to die slowly in front of our eyes. Studies of its history though demonstrate explicitly that in the past it was not always full of water either

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