14.1 The Aral Sea
The Aral Sea was an endorheic lake in Central Asia within the State borders of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Until the 1960s, the Aral Sea had the surface of 68´000 km2 and the volume of about 1000 km3. At the time, it was the second largest intra-continental drainless lake (after the Caspian Sea) and the fourth largest lake in the world (after the Caspian Sea, Lake Superior and Lake Victoria). The name of the Aral Sea originates from the Turkic word for “island.” Until 1961, the Aral Sea´s …