Muynak

Most cities in Asia are located on the river banks and trade routes. The settlements on the Silk Road are now developing cities yet there are hundreds of places that became uninhabited when the trade route was closed. Muynak is one of such dead settlements in Uzbekistan. 

Once Muynak or Moynaq was a large port on the bank of the Aral Sea. Today, it is a 100 km desert and a natural disaster not only for the region but also for the entire ecology and the world. Aral lake was so large and beautiful that it was called a sea. Its sandy beaches, fish, and ecosystem were unique and now we can see nothing but endless sands and abandoned ships in the middle of the desert.

The city was established in the 1930s’, fishing and fish factory was the main thing that kept the city alive. By the 1970s the process of drying of the lake started; the locals were supposed to leave Muynak but they didn’t. About 15 thousand people are living in the Tragedy-City always complaining of unemployment. And only tourists attracted by postapoplectic views and the cemetery of ships visit Muynak over and over again.