Aralkum Desert
Unique sand-solonchak desert and a monument of global anthropogenic changes -
Aralkum Desert (Akkum – White Desert) represents the youngest, most dynamically developing desert on the planet. It is located on the territory of the Aral district of the Kyzylorda region of Kazakhstan and the Muynak district of the Republic of Karakalpakstan in Uzbekistan. This vast geographical object formed on the site of the dried bed of the once great Aral Sea – the fourth largest lake in the world.
Aralkum lies at the northwestern tip of the great Karakum and Kyzylkum deserts, serving as a harsh monument to global anthropogenic environmental changes and a unique ecosystem where science studies the extreme processes of nature's adaptation. The history of the new desert's formation began in the 1960s, when large-scale irrigation projects of the USSR to increase the area of cotton and rice plantations led to the total diversion of waters from the main feeding rivers – the Amu Darya and Syr Darya. The consequences of this land reclamation were not taken into account, which provoked an ecological catastrophe.
By 1987–1989, the sea divided into two isolated reservoirs: the Northern (Small Aral Sea) and the Southern (Large Aral Sea). After the construction of the Kokaral Dam in 2005, the Small Aral began to gradually recover, but the Southern Aral continued to dry up rapidly (losing up to 90% of its area), because of which the eastern part of the Large Sea completely turned into dry land by 2014, permanently increasing the size of Aralkum. The size of the desert varies in different sources from 38,000 to 60,000 – 62,000 square kilometers. It is best to travel through the desert and its sights from the city of Aralsk, through the Karateren village.
Today, the Aralkum Desert is recognized as a key object of the Aral Geopark and an important point for extreme, research, and ecological automobile tourism in the Aral region. The exposed seabed attracts ecological scientists, paleontologists, and fans of 4x4 jeep tours. You can go along a tourist route through the Tastubek fishing village and the Akespe village, where the famous healing Istyk-Su geothermal spring is located.
Travelers rush here to see the famous rusty "ships of the desert" stranded in the middle of dunes tens of kilometers away from water, and to explore ancient monuments such as the Aral-Asar ancient settlement and the Kerderi Mausoleum. Here you can visit the "Aralkum" National Nature Park, created in 2023 in Karakalpakstan on an area of 1 million hectares to protect biodiversity and develop regulated ecotourism. The desert borders the Barsakelmes Nature Reserve and the former Barsakelmes Island.
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How to get there and visit -
The Aralkum Desert covers the vast dried bed of the Aral Sea on the territory of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The main strong bases for expeditions deep into the desert zone are the city of Aralsk, the former southern port of Muynak, as well as the coastal villages of Zhalanash, Tastubek, Akespe, Akbasty, and Karateren. The distance from Aralsk to the first solonchak sections ranges from 20 to 50 kilometers.
GPS geographical coordinates: 45°23'54"N 59°47'44"E
The transport logistics of this wild region completely exclude public transport – regular buses or city taxi services do not run on the dried seabed. Visiting the desert is possible exclusively in the format of autonomous expeditions in prepared cars from Aralsk, or in rented SUVs with local guides who know the safe steppe tracks well, bypassing the marshy swampy shores.
Only a reliable four-wheel-drive SUV (4x4 jeep) with high clearance is suitable for a trip through Aralkum. Moving along the salty bed involves high danger: under the hard white crust of solonchaks, consisting of a mixture of sea sand, salt, and shells, liquid silty soil is often hidden, capable of instantly trapping even a heavy vehicle.
It is categorically forbidden to travel through the desert alone in a single car – there must be at least two vehicles in the expedition. Drivers are required to carry satellite navigators, reliable shovels, dynamic ropes, sand tracks, spare fuel canisters, and a large supply of fresh drinking water, which is literally worth its weight in gold here.
Expeditions to Aralkum are recommended to be planned for the spring period (April – May) or early autumn (September – October). In summer, unbearable heat reigns in the desert (the air warms up above 32–40°C), humidity drops to 10%, and sandstorms scatter toxic salt dust. Scorching winds cause chemical burns when salty moisture gets into the eyes.
In winter, the region is subject to severe frosts (the temperature drops on average by 2°C and reaches -10°C) and strong blizzards. All tent camps are organized by tourists independently in wild conditions (popular overnight stay places are the Kaltybay mountains, the Shoshkaly tract, or yurt camps on the Uzbek side of the Large Aral).
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History
The history of the Aralkum Desert is a chronicle of the largest anthropogenic disaster of the twentieth century, which changed the landscape of Central Asia. Back in the middle of the last century, the Aral Sea was a prosperous undrained reservoir that formed a unique humid climate. The length of its delta was 425 km, width – 284 km, and the depth reached 60 meters. The construction of the Karakum Canal, which took 40% of the Amu Darya flow, and hundreds of small irrigation ditches led to the fact that rivers stopped reaching the sea, getting lost in the sands and pipes of irrigation systems.
The shrinking of the reservoir went rapidly. The receding water exposed the centuries-old seabed, turning the port cities of Muynak and Aralsk into inland settlements removed from the water area by 70–100 kilometers. Scientists note that the Aral dried up completely several times in the distant past as well (in particular, in the 10th and 14th centuries due to natural causes), after which it successfully recovered. However, modern regression is aggravated by a powerful anthropogenic factor, because of which there is no hope for a natural revival of the Large Aral, and the birth of a new, most toxic desert in the world is officially recorded on the site of the vanished sea.
Information
As a result of desertification, the region's biodiversity decreased by 200 species of plants and animals, and the climate became sharply continental. The main feature of Aralkum is frequent and prolonged dust storms – "salt tornadoes," the wind speed during which reaches 20–25 m/s. If before the disaster storms occurred no more than 10 days a year, by the turn of the millennium their number grew to 90 days. Aralkum acts as a powerful source of wind removal: every year from 80 to 100 million tons of fine dust and toxic salts (sodium bicarbonate, chloride, and sulfate, the concentration of which reaches 520 kg/ha) are emitted into the atmosphere.
This airborne fine dust contains residues of mineral fertilizers and dangerous pesticides that for decades washed from cotton fields into riverbeds. A powerful air flow carries the aerosol far beyond the boundaries of Central Asia: toxic substances of Aralkum were found in the blood of penguins in Antarctica, on the glaciers of Greenland, in the forests of Norway, and in the fields of Belarus.
To combat soil erosion, UNESCO and the governments of the countries carry out large-scale forest reclamation measures, including the planting of protective strips of saxaul. Within the framework of the "Bonn Challenge" program, Uzbekistan restored about 500,000 hectares of forest on the dried bottom by 2020, and the USAID agency launched the ERAS-I program to increase landscape resilience.
The environmental disaster directly strikes the remaining population (1.8 million people live in Karakalpakstan): salt storms cause economic damage of more than 44 million dollars a year (2% of the region's GDP) and provoke spikes in dangerous diseases.
Detailed description of the venue
The well-thought-out structure of the natural and expeditionary complex of the Aralkum Desert includes the following original locations and geographical features:
• Exposed seabed – multi-kilometer flat plains of the former bottom covered with a loose crust of salt, sand, and centuries-old deposits of seashells.
• Sand dunes of Malyye Barsuki – moving golden dunes that actively advance on the former water area of the sea near the Akespe village from the northern side.
• White solonchaks and takyrs – extensive areas with a dense salt crust of gray and white color, requiring maximum caution when driving a car.
• Historical zone "Cemetery of Ships" – desert areas near Zhalanash Bay and the city of Muynak, where rusty brown hulls of Soviet fishing vessels and barges rise in the middle of saxaul.
• Aral-Asar ancient settlement – a medieval 14th-century settlement excavated by archaeologists with an area of 6 hectares, hidden for centuries under a 20-meter thickness of sea waves.
• Cult necropolis Kerderi – unique ruins of medieval facade domed mausoleums made of fired brick and durable stone, risen from the bottom of the dried sea.
• Vozrozhdeniya Island – a former isolated piece of land in the central part of the Aral, where a closed testing ground for biological weapons with old cattle burial grounds was located in the Soviet years.
Flora and fauna
The flora of Aralkum on the dried bottom began to develop since 1960, passing through a complex process of natural succession. A few weeks after the bed dries up, the moist soil covered with algae residues is populated by blue-green cyanobacteria. Then salt-tolerant annual plants form a primary cover. The final stage of succession is reached in 30–40 years due to the immigration of species from the Karakum and Kyzylkum deserts. Today, the plant world of Aralkum includes 34 families of plants with 134 genera and 300 species (according to other data – up to 368 species of vascular plants).
Halophytes dominate on loamy soils: common glasswort (Salicornia europaea), fleshy seepweed (Suaeda crassifolia), and sea aster (Tripolium vulgare). On sandy sections, acute seepweed (Suaeda acuminata) and Fomin's saltwort (Atriplex fominii) took root. Plants have developed tough mechanisms of adaptation: white and black saxaul, tamarisk, and cherkez developed a deep root system to extract underground water, and dzhouzgun is completely devoid of leaves to reduce evaporation.
The fauna of Aralkum is poor due to toxic salts, but is gradually adapting to the desert ecosystem. Mammals are represented by migrating herds of saigas, wolves, jackals, foxes, hares, and wild boars in former river deltas. Ornithofauna includes owls, crows, desert sparrows, and larks. Among reptiles, snakes, steppe tortoises, and lizards capable of storing moisture in the body are common. Of the insects, beetles, ants, spiders, and scorpions predominate on takyrs, and herds of Bactrian camels graze in oases from domestic animals.
Legend
The Aralkum Desert, strewn with centuries-old seashells and salt, stores many mystical stories and traditions. The main legend of these places is the tale of the "curse of the Blue Sea." The elders of coastal villages believe that the Aral left the people intentionally, tired of man's consumer attitude and the large-scale destruction of riverbeds. The sea decided to take its blue water away, exposing ancient cities and the mazars of Kerderi as a grim warning about the fragility of human civilizations.
Among drivers and jeep expedition guides, a mystical belief about the "ghost ships" of Aralkum circulates. It is said that during a full moon, when a thick steppe mist rises over the white solonchaks, the rusty hulls of ships in the Zhalanash desert seem to come alive. If you turn off the engine of the SUV at this time and listen to the silence, through the whistle of the wind in the branches of saxaul you can clearly hear the splash of invisible waves, the cries of seagulls, and the muffled rumble of steamer horns, reminding of the former full-flowing greatness of the lost sea. Many legends are also connected with Barsakelmes Island, from where, according to stories of local residents, people disappeared without a trace in the past, returning decades later with the firm conviction that they had spent only a few days on the island.
Conclusion
The Aralkum Desert is a magnificent historical bridge connecting the memory of the great full-flowing Aral Sea with the modern realities of ecological changes and the colossal tourist potential of the Kyzylorda region. A visit to this youngest desert in the world allows travelers to personally appreciate the scale of natural-anthropogenic cataclysms, touch the secrets of medieval settlements, and feel the majesty of the pristine harsh nature of the Aral region.
Aralkum remains an essential reference point for extreme off-road, scientific-local history, and adventure tourism. Automobile expeditions along the dried seabed open stunning pages of steppe history before tourists, proving that even on the site of the vanished sea, unique tourist routes are born.
Interesting sights nearby:
• Basibek Mausoleum;
• Raim Fort;
• Tolybay Batyr Mausoleum;
• Saraman-Kosa Tower;
• Begim-Ana Tower;
• Butakov Bay;
• Shevchenko Bay;
• Akbasty village;
• Bogen village;
• Ayteke Bi village.
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