English

Satellite images of the Aral Sea in 1989 (left) and in 2008 (right).

Proper noun

Aral Sea

1. A saline lake straddling the Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan border, that was once large, but that has shrunk 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.

Translations