Aral Sea

Meaning

1. A saline lake, straddling the Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan border, that was once large, but shrank to a quarter of its original size after the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, which previously flowed into it, were diverted for irrigation purposes during the Soviet era.

Etymology / origin

From Kazakh арал (aral, “an island”), referring to the more than 1,500 islands that once dotted its waters.

Sources

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