Aral Sea

brackish lake formerly straddling the border between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan; now split into parts, some of which are entirely within Kazakhstan ◆The Aral Sea's present area is a small fraction of its pre-1960 peak of 25,500 square miles (66,000 square kilometers) when it was the 4th largest inland body of water in the world. Its shrinkage is due in part to the diversion of water for irrigation from the rivers that flow into it.