Aral Sea

== English == === Etymology === From Kazakh арал (aral, “an island”), referring to the more than 1,500 islands that once dotted its waters. === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /ˈɑːɹəl siː/ === Proper noun === the Aral Sea A saline lake, straddling the Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan 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. ==== Translations ==== ==== Further reading ==== Aral Sea on Wikipedia.Wikipedia