Muynak and the Aral Sea ship graveyard

In 1960 the Aral Sea covered 68,000 km² — larger than West Virginia, roughly the same area as Ireland — and was the world's fourth-largest lake by surface area after the Caspian, Superior, and Victoria^[1]. It supported a Soviet fishing industry of 40,000+ workers, port towns at Muynak (Uzbekistan) and Aralsk (Kazakhstan), and a substantial commercial fleet.

The Aral was fed by two rivers: the Amu Darya (from the south) and the Syr Darya (from the east). In the 1950s–70s Soviet planners diverted both rivers to irrigate cotton and rice fields in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Water flow to the Aral dropped 80% within two decades. The sea began shrinking in the mid-1960s; by 1990 it had lost half its volume; by 2015 the eastern basin had entirely disappeared.

Salinity rose from 10 g/L (roughly a third of ocean water) to over 100 g/L (three times ocean water) as the sea concentrated. The 20 native fish species died; the fishing industry collapsed; the towns emptied.

Muynak was a busy fishing port on the sea's southern shore until the 1980s. As the water retreated, the town found itself progressively further inland. Today the town centre is roughly 150 km from open water — an all-day drive across salt flats.

Around ten iron hulls of Soviet trawlers were abandoned on the emerging seabed and remain there today, arranged on the dunes at what is now the town's main museum-park. The Muynak Museum inside the small town covers the fishing industry, the disappearing sea, and the ongoing restoration attempts. Yurt camps on the retreating shoreline offer overnight stays.

The dried Aral seabed — 60,000+ km² of exposed alkaline mud — has become a major source of salt-and-dust storms. Winds carry the residue across Karakalpakstan and beyond; particles have been detected as far as Antarctica in glacier cores. The health effects on the ~2 million people living in the former Aral basin have been severe: high rates of respiratory disease, tuberculosis, and infant mortality documented since the 1990s.

In 2005 Kazakhstan built the Kok-Aral Dam separating the small northern basin from the larger (dying) southern basin. Fed by the still-flowing Syr Darya, the North Aral has partially recovered — its surface area has grown by ~30% and salinity has fallen enough for fishing to resume from Aralsk^[2]. The Kazakh basin is a rare success story in international environmental recovery. The Uzbek South Aral remains largely lost.

Fly Tashkent → Nukus (Uzbekistan Airways or Qanot Sharq, ~2 h). From Nukus, rent a 4WD with a driver (~$150 per day) for the 3-hour drive north to Muynak. Combine with an overnight yurt-camp stay on the retreating Aral shoreline for the fullest picture. Best months are March–May and September–October; summer temperatures at Muynak can exceed 45 °C.