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Deserts cover more than three quarters of the territory of Central Asia. The Aral Sea is situated in the large lowlands of Turan, in the Karakum and Kyzylkum deserts. The Aral Sea basin includes rivers : the Syrdarya, the Amudarya, the Tendjen, the Murgab, small rivers springing down from the western Tian Shan and Kopetdag, the Karakum canal, and waterless areas between these rivers.
In terms of administration the Aral region fully includes Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, south-western part of Kazakhstan, part of Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and also northern Afghanistan and north-eastern Iran. The Aral region occupies more than 700,000 sq. kms. This is a kingdom of high mountains, dry steppes, semi-deserts and deserts. The features of geographical situation of the Basin are following: centre of vast mainland, large distance from oceans. This stipulates sharply continental climate and monotonous landscapes connected to high degree of their arid properties.
The region is surrounded by huge mountainous systems. Normally, in summer the temperature here reaches upto 40 degrees centigrade and in winter it falls down to -20 degrees centigrade, while precipitation remains minimal. The main volume of surface waters is consisted of thaw water from high glaciers, feeding the two largest rivers of the region : the Syrdarya and the Amudarya, which enter into the Aral Sea from the north and the south correspondingly.
The territory between these two rivers was populated about3,500 years ago. In ancient times the Aral region due to its geographical position was a crossing point of important historical routes. Khiva, Samarkand and the Fergana valley were parts of the Great Silk Road, which connected Europe and Asia. Archeological excavations indicate that prior to 1 000 BC on the territory of Uzbekistan there were irrigation systems, which allowed settled agriculture to develop here.
Since time immemorial this region was an oasis, where active lives of thousands of working people prospered : they were farmers and stockbreeders, fishermen and hunters, craftsmen and great masters, traders and merchants. The Aral Sea has been uniting and feeding numerous nations of the region.
Countless lagoons and shallow and narrow straits between islands were the main characteristics of the Aral landscape. More than 1, 100 islands had made the name of the sea. In Kazakh language the word "Aral" stands...