ARAL, a lake or inland sea in western Asia, between lat. 3o' and 46° 50' N., and long. 58° o' and 62° E. It was known to the ancient Arab and Persian geographers as the Sea of Khwarizm or Kharezm, from the neighbouring district of the Chorasmians, and derives its present name from the Kirghiz designation of Aral denghiz, or Sea of Islands. It is the fourth largest inland sea of the world having a total length of 28o miles and a width of some 130 miles. The maximum depth is only 68 metres, in a depression parallel to the west coast, and the average is only 16 metres. Its altitude is 74 metres above the Caspian, i.e., 48 metres above the ocean. It is surrounded on the north by steppes; on the west by the rocky plateau of Ust-Urt, separating it from the Caspian; on the south by the alluvial district of Khiva ; and on the east by the Kyzyl-kum or Red Sand Desert. The north shores are low, and broken by irregular bays such as those of Sary-chaganak and Paskevich. On the west an almost unbroken wall of clay forma tion extends from Tschernyshewa bay southwards, and attains a height of some 25o feet. On the south is the delta of the Oxus (Jihun, Amu-darya), one of the arms of which, the Laudan, forms a swamp, 13okm. long and 3okm. broad, before it discharges into the sea. The Jaxartes (Sihun, Syr darya) enters in the north-east and is suspected to be shifting its embouchure to the north. These rivers bring down vast quan tities of sediment ; the delta of the Syr-darya increased by 34 sq.km. between 1847 and 190o. The eastern coast is fringed with multitudes of small islands, and others, some of considerable size, lie in the open towards north and west. Frequency and vio lence of storms, and almost total absence of shelter hinder naviga tion ; there is little shipping save some flat-bottomed boats of the Kirghiz. The north-east wind is the most prevalent, and sometimes blows for months together. The salinity of Aral is only 10.7 per cent. The surface temperature varies between 32°F. in winter, when long stretches of the coast are ice-fringed, and 80°F. in late summer (E. Berg, 1900-8). Variations of level are remarkable and irregular and quite unconnected with the Bruckner 35-year cycle, but the old idea that the sea disappears at times is wrong. Until 1880 the sea had long been diminishing and this gave rise to the idea, in western Europe, that the inland basins of west central Asia were drying up, but from 1880 to 1908 the level rose by nearly 3 metres, and there was increased utilization of the waters of Amu-darya and Syr-darya in their upper courses for irrigation. Islands previously linked with the shore became widely separated from it. Between the 13th and 16th centuries and in antiquity the Amu-darya may have sent an arm to the Caspian south of the Ust-Urt plateau. Within historic times also the Aral sea may have had a connection with the Mertyyi Kultuk gulf of the north east Caspian, and in this case would then have been a freshwater lake. Its level was much higher in post-Pliocene times, for shells of Pecten and Mytilus species occur in the Kara-kum desert 55km. to the south of, and 24 metres or even perhaps 65 metres above, the present sea. The fish of Aral are freshwater species and some of its rapid streams still preserve the ancient fish type Scaphirhyn clius. Fishing is not so productive as in the Caspian but fish are sent to Turkistan, Mery and Russia. The shores are uninhabited, the nearest settlements being Kazala, 9okm. east on the Syr, and Chimbai and Kungrad in the Amu delta. The Orenburg-Tashkent Railway passes near the north-east corner of Aral.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Maksheev, Description of Lake Aral, Zapiski, Russ. Bibliography.-Maksheev, Description of Lake Aral, Zapiski, Russ. Geogr. Soc., Ist ser., vol. v.; Kaulbar, Delta of the Amu, ibid., new ser., vol ix. ; Mushketov, Turkestan, vol. i. (1886) ; Berg, ;zvestia, Turkistan Branch of Russ. Geogr. Soc. (Tashkent, 1902 and 19o8) ; Woeikof, Der Aralsee, Peterm. Mitt. (19o9) ; Halbfass, Die Seen der Erde (1922).