Aral Sea Archives

Gayane Umerova, Chairperson of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF), and Joseph Grima, Programme Director of the Aral School. Photo courtesy of ACDF.

Can design help reimagine the future of the Aral Sea? Joseph Grima on a different kind of school

Can design help address the Aral Sea region’s environmental challenges? Aral School director Joseph Grima discusses climate change, local knowledge and a new approach to design education in Uzbekistan’s Karakalpakstan. [...]

Gulnaz Abutova, founder of Clean Water (c. Maximum Exposure)

From the Aral Sea to eco start-ups: Uzbekistan’s young climate generation

Support Novastan, the European Central Asia magazine By supporting Novastan, you are supporting the only English, French and German-language media specialising in Central Asia. We’re independent and we need your… [...]

The remaining waters of the Aral Sea in Karakalpakstan. Photo: Mathieu Lemoine.

From the Pamirs to the Aral Sea: Following the Amu Darya Through Central Asia

Support Novastan, the European Central Asia magazine By supporting Novastan, you are supporting the only English, French and German-language media specialising in Central Asia. We’re independent and we need your… [...]

Oktyabr Dospanov aboard one of the abandoned ships in Muynak, once a major fishing port on the Aral Sea. Photo: Ernest Kurtveliev.

“My Childhood Was Spent on the Shore of a Sea That No Longer Exists”

Support Novastan, the European Central Asia magazine By supporting Novastan, you are supporting the only English, French and German-language media specialising in Central Asia. We’re independent and we need your… [...]

Dromedary

On the way to what remains of the Aral Sea, groups of dromedaries and camels can be seen along the roadside. We are in the middle of the… [...]

Bakery smoke

The smoke of a local bakery fills the air of a village deep in the Jizzakh region, Uzbekistan. This photo was taken during the filming of… [...]

Ship cemetery, Moynaq, Uzbekistan - credits : Zoé Toulouse

Dried up

It is arguably the greatest man-made environmental catastrophe in history. Moynaq, once an important fishing town on the shores of the Aral Sea, now lies on… [...]

Antoine Beguier Aral Sea Environment Uzbekistan Kazakhstan

Aralsk: Pictures of the Vanished Aral Sea

A PLACE IN CENTRAL ASIA – A victim of one of the greatest ecological catastrophes of the twentieth century, the Aral Sea, which is located in northern Uzbekistan and… [...]

Moynaq Uzbekistan Karakalpakstan Aral Sea

Dusty old town

Boats, Uzbekistan, Moynaq, Aral sea, Aralkum

Abandoned fleet

Former fishing… [...]

Aral Sea Monument

Aral Sea Monument in Moynaq placed above the former shore of the lake features the depictions of the Aral Sea in 1960 and the current state that are… [...]

A camel at the edge of the ancient Aral Sea

On the ancient shores of a dried-up Aral Sea, a camel stands motionless, like a symbol of the region’s desertification. Credit: Antoine Beguier (France) Find all… [...]