In 1960, the Aral Sea was the fourth-largest lake on Earth. By 2014, its eastern basin had completely dried up. Soviet engineers deliberately killed it to grow cotton — and the aftermath includes toxic dust storms, ship graveyards in the desert, and an entire fishing civilization wiped out. But against all odds, one part of it is coming back.
The complete timeline of destruction: from the 1960s Soviet diversion projects through the 1987 split into two separate bodies, to the moment NASA satellites confirmed the eastern basin was gone entirely in 2014.
BBC's concise but devastating visual account of how an entire inland sea was drained in just four decades, told through satellite imagery and the voices of people who watched it happen.
A comprehensive nature documentary covering the full scope of the catastrophe: the Soviet decision-making, the ecological cascade, and the human toll on communities that depended on the sea for centuries.
NASA's own satellite image series tracking the Aral Sea from 1960 to 2018. The before-and-after imagery is staggering — watching an entire sea evaporate in time-lapse from orbit.
A haunting visit to Muynak, Uzbekistan — once a thriving port city, now 150 km from the nearest water. Rusting fishing boats sit in the desert like monuments to Soviet hubris.
FRANCE 24's on-the-ground reporting from the Aral region, documenting the toxic legacy: salt-laden dust storms carrying pesticide residue across hundreds of kilometers, devastating the health of communities downwind.
The redemption arc: Kazakhstan's Kokaral Dam trapped water in the North Aral, increasing volume 42% by 2025. Fish returned, the fishing industry revived to 8,000 tons annually, and 870 square kilometers of dead seabed were reclaimed. Proof that even catastrophe can be partially reversed.