Aral Sea

Meaning

Proper Noun

• A saline lake, straddle straddling the Kazakhstan (country)-Uzbekistan (country) 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.

Origin

• From Kazakh арал ("island"), referring to the more than 1,500 islands that once dotted its waters.