Dike Kokaral is a
levee across a narrow stretch of the
Aral Sea, splitting off the
North Aral Sea (also called "The Small Sea") from the much larger
South Aral Sea ("The Large Sea"). The dike is conserving the dwindling waters of the
Syr Darya river and maintaining (and attempting to revive) the damaged ecology of the North Aral Sea, at the expense of sealing the fate of the larger South Aral. Work was completed in August 2005. Dike Kokaral is named after the
Kokaral peninsula (an island until the 1960s), which would connect it to the other shore of the Aral Sea and separate the northern from the southern seas.