Are there still many islands left in the Aral sea?
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, September 1999, pages 28-29 Central Asia Shrinking of Aral Sea Causes Regional Health Crisis By Lucy Jones Crumbling, windswept guest houses, a boarded-up seafront cinema and a few crumpled metal placards showing ice cream and fish are all that is left of Moynaq’s past life as northern Uzbekistan’s foremost spa town. As pale ragged children watch their mothers buy food in sparsely stocked stores, it is impossible to imagine a time when this town was a thriving vacation resort. Soviet tourists once flocked to Moynaq to swim in the Aral Sea’s salty waters, famed for healing skin diseases, and to sunbathe on pristine beaches. Children from far away cities were bused in to under-canvas summer camps to breathe the sea air and eat fresh fish. Today Moynaq overlooks a glistening salty plain, now a graveyard of rusting hulks of stranded fishing vessels. The sea is 70 miles from the promenade and impossible to see with the naked eye. The Aral Sea has sh
