19th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Natural World
The dreaming ships in the sands

The photo was taken near Muynak city, which was a prosperious sea-port of the Aral Sea just a few decades ago. Due to the mismanagement of water during the USSR, the Aral Sea lost over 90% of it's size and led to many ecological and social problems for many thousand people living in the region. Now only the rusting ships remind of the beatiful sea and developed fishing industry.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 08.2019
Date Uploaded: 11.2021
Photo Location: Muynak, Uzbekistan
Camera: NIKON D750
Copyright: © Azamat Matkarimov