Germany’s TV and Radio Company NDR showed a documentary film “Uzbekistan: A new life near the Aral Sea”.

The story reports that the Aral Sea was once the fourth largest drainless lake in the world: “The lake located between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan is equal in area to the land of Bavaria. Today it has turned into a desert of sand, dust and salt”, NDR states. Only ten percent of the sea area is covered by water... Saxaul resistant to saline soils are now planted here to protect against erosion and sandstorms. Recently, this area with an unusual landscape is increasingly being opened to tourists”.

As the author of the film notes, the Muynak Museum also attracts visitors’ attention. “The scenes shown in the film and photographs give people memories of bygone times, because earlier, this area was known not only for tourism, but also for fishing, where there was a fishing fleet and a large Muynak fish cannery. All this has been closed for a long time, and many residents had to move”.

The documentary tells people’s stories associated with this place, particularly about 74-year-old Ali Shaddinov, who witnessed the drying up of the huge Aral Sea and is considered one of the last living captains.

Sharing his impressions of the trip, the author emphasizes that the film crew drove for a long time along the road that was once the bottom of the lake: “Gradually you begin to realize the scale of the dried-up salt lake, which had an area equal to the land of Bavaria”.

The film concludes: “There is no water, tourists come, and only an old man without a sea remains”.

UzA