The
Aral Sea (
Aral Teñizi; ; ;
Bahri Aral; older
Daryâche Khârazm) was an
endorheic lake lying between
Kazakhstan (
Aktobe and
Kyzylorda Regions) in the north and
Uzbekistan (
Karakalpakstan autonomous region) in the south. The name roughly translates as "Sea of Islands", referring to over 1,100 islands that once dotted its waters; in the
Turkic languages aral means "island, archipelago". The Aral Sea
drainage basin encompasses Uzbekistan and parts of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Afghanistan.