Once a massive body of water, the only signs of its former glory are the eerie rusted ships that line what used to be a ...

AKESPE, Kazakhstan -- Standing on the shore under the relentless Central Asian sun, Badarkhan Prikeyev drew on a cigarette and squinted into the distance as one fishing boat after another returned ...

Once a shimmering 68,000-square-kilometer (26,000-square-mile) inland sea straddling Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, the Aral Sea was one of the largest lakes on Earth. For centuries, it sustained thriving ...

ARAL DISTRICT, Kazakhstan — When Akshabak Batimova was growing up, her father left their village in western Kazakhstan each morning to fish in the Aral Sea — until recently, one of the world’s largest ...

The Aral Sea straddles the border of the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. It was once one of the world's largest lakes, but after years of being drained to irrigate crops, it ...

SOUTH ARAL SEA, Uzbekistan — As the rising sun casts golden rays over the Aral Sea, a group of Uzbek fishermen wearing sweatshirts and knit caps gathered on a chilly beach to discuss the day’s plan.

Akshabak Batimova, 67, stands by the now mostly dried-up bay along the former port in Aral, Kazakhstan. After the Aral Sea dried up, it devastated the livelihood of locals like Batimova who worked as ...