Aral region

On the territory of the region there are Neolithic sites and monuments of the Bronze Age Ak-Espe, Shoki-Su, Shelgi-Zagem, Koksu, Sary-Shyganak, Zhaksy-Kylysh, parking at the stations Sapak, Saksaulskaya, Kamysty-Bas and near the city of Aralsk. In the lower reaches of the Syr Darya River there is a monument of the Late Bronze Age - Togusken burial ground.

In the lower Syr Darya there lived Saks and Yaksarts ^[3] , traditionally referred to as Massagets , and Paradarayas (river Saks). They had a rather high culture, as evidenced by the remains of large irrigation structures, the ruins of cities, tombstones, inscriptions, etc.

Most of today's Aral region belonged to the Sakas-Massagets, its other part was part of the Kangyuev (Kangly) state.

During the migration of the Huns to the west, their hordes reached the lower reaches of the Syr Darya. In the year 93 A.D. e. part of the Huns, settled in the Aral Sea region, forms the state of the “White Huns" - the Ephtalites . The group that occupied Transoxania , that is, the area between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, separated from the Western Huns during their movement to Europe. This group is called the Ephtalities. It was they who attacked India in 427 ; as a result of raids and conquests, they were able to create a state, which included North-West India, part of Central Asia , Eastern Iran and Afghanistan . Later, the Huns moved from the Syr Darya lands to the Volga , then penetrate the plains of Hungary led by Attila . In the VIII century, Central Asia and the south of Kazakhstan were conquered by the Arabs who spread Islam here. The Arabic translations of the works of famous scholars of antiquity. In the IX - X centuries. in the area of ​​the middle and lower reaches of the river. The early feudal state of the Oguz tribes formed the Syr Darya. The Oghuz association included Turkic-speaking tribes of nomads and farmers. The cities of Oghuz and Kipchaks include Zhent-Zhankala and Chirik-Rabat . At the end of the X century. Seljuks spread their influence on the Syr Darya. In 955, the founder of the ruling Seljuk dynasty settled with his adherents in Zhent. After the Mongol invasion , the banks of the Syr Darya were empty, gardens and fields were left unattended. Farmers and artisans were taken prisoner and sold to different countries, and in the place of flowering cities there were only ruins. Agriculture fell into decay. The culture created by centuries, the Syr Darya civilization perished.

After the formation of the Golden Horde in 1243, the territory from the Aral Sea to Khorasan , including the Syr Darya region, the state of Batu was legally consolidated as the southern borders. During the reign of the Horde khans, the cities along the Seykhundarya (the old name of the Syr Darya) fell into decay. In the middle of the XVI century, the right bank of the Syr Darya was under the rule of the Kazakh Khanate . By this time, many cities in the region had finally died out. In the “Big Drawing Book”, compiled in 1600 , it is mentioned that Kazakhs lived in the middle reaches of the Syr Darya and in the areas lying 600 miles north of it. During the Great Disaster ( 1723–1727 .), Refugees from the eastern, northeastern and central lands found shelter in the Syr Darya region. With the adoption of Russian citizenship by Khan Abulkhair, all lands were assigned to Russia, including the territory of today's Aral region of the Kyzylorda region.

For the development of southern Kazakhstan in 1847, the tsarist government created the Aral fortification in the Syrdarya delta. In 1905, the city of Aralsk was founded.

In the region from 1942 to 1992, on the Renaissance island in the Aral Sea, a Soviet biochemical laboratory operated. According to unconfirmed reports, microbiological (bacteriological) weapons were tested on the island throughout the entire period.

The maximum level of development of economic and social development of the Aral region was achieved in the 1970s , before the sharp decline in sea level .

Back in the 1950-1960s, the Supreme Council of the Kazakh SSR discussed the creation of the Aral region as an administrative-territorial unit (consisting of the Aral, Kazalinsky, Karmakchinsky districts of the Kyzyl-Orda oblast and the Chelkarsky district of the Aktobe region). The main sectors of the regional economy should have been the extraction and processing of oil (in the east of the Aral and Kazalinsky districts near the villages of Abai and Orazbay), the extraction and primary beneficiation of iron ore (the Shubartarauz peninsula on the Aral Sea), the extraction of sodium sulfate (sodium chloride) and mirabilite ( raw materials for obtaining alloy steels), fishing and fish processing, shipping, animal husbandry, crop production. The problem of shortage of fresh water was supposed to be solved with the help of atomic desalination plants (similar to how it was implemented on the Mangyshlak peninsula). However, due to the progressive drying out of the Aral Sea in the 1980s and the economic degradation of the region, this project was not implemented.

In 1998, a geological expedition discovered deposits of quartz sand in the Aral region in the tract Sarshoky. The features of this sand are its special natural purity, the absence of a clay component, and the minimum content of natural pigments, which makes it possible to use it for the production of transparent high-quality glass without enrichment. The quartz content in it is 95%, which corresponds to the state standard “ground quartz sand for the glass industry”. Recorded sand reserves are about sixteen million tons. The Almaty-based Laton-Market company opened a platform for shipping sand at the Chumysh station near Aralsk, from where sand is sent by cars to glass factories in the CIS countries (in particular, to Chuiglass and Interglass plants in Kyrgyzstan, to the Quartz plant in Uzbekistan ) The quarry productivity is 250 thousand tons per year, the number of personnel is about 40 people.

In Aralsk, the fish processing factory “Flounder Balyk” (productivity 300 tons per year), located on the site of the former bakery, is now operating. In 2008, it is planned to open two fish processing plants in the Aral region: Atameken Holding (project capacity 8,000 tons per year) in Aralsk and Kambash Balyk (250 tons per year) in Kamyshlybash ^[4] , which will use fish caught in northern part of the Aral Sea (Small Aral) and in the lake Kamyshlybash.

In the Aral region, breeding horse breeding and camel breeding , production of koumiss and shubat are developing . ^[five]

The area of ​​the district is 68.4 thousand km². Plant zone - wormwood and wormwood-solyanky deserts (sandy, clay and salt marshes).

Among the sands grow astragalus, juzgun, wheatgrass and other plants. Significant areas are occupied by saxaul forests. In the floodplain of the Syr Darya, there are meadow vegetation, as well as tugai forests ( dzhidovo - willow - dzhingilevye ), reed thickets, on salt marshes - combed bushes.

The fauna of the region is represented mainly by steppe and waterfowl ( ducks , geese , waders ), desert birds (grouse, doves, lanes), etc., ungulates ( saigas ), carnivores (foxes, wolves, etc.), various rodents reptiles, etc.

As a result of the shallowing, the salinity of the Aral Sea increased sharply, which caused the extinction of many species of aquatic flora and fauna adapted to less salinity. The sea has lost its fishery importance. The Aral Sea was a unique inland body of water at the junction of the largest deserts of Central Asia - the Karakum, Kyzylkum, Ustyurt , Greater and Lesser Badgers and the Aral Karakum. Among the lakes of the globe, the Aral once occupied the fourth place after the Caspian Sea, Lake Superior and Lake Victoria.

Barsakelmes is a nature reserve in the Aral region on the island of the same name in the Aral Sea. Its area is 18.3 thousand ha. The desert landscapes of the island are monotonous: wormwood and hodgepodge vegetation predominate, thinned thickets of saxaul forests and mounds on sand dunes are found. The flora of the island has 165 species of plants. The fauna is quite poor in species terms, but has a significant density. There are 12 species of mammals ( kulan , gazelle , saiga, corsac , fox , wolf , gopher sandstone and others), 7 species of reptiles and 202 species of birds. The reserve is conducting scientific research on the effects of the fall of the Aral Sea level on the vegetation and wildlife of the Aral Sea region .

The climate is sharply continental, desert, with long hot and dry summers and short, not very snowy (but frosty) winters. The average July temperature is about 26 ° C, January is about −12 ° C. The amount of precipitation is 100–120 mm per year (the smallest in Kazakhstan).

National composition (as of January 1, 2016) ^[1] :

• Kazakhs - 76 977 people. (99.89%)
• Russians - 40 people (0.05%)
• others - 42 people. (0.05%)
• In total - 77 059 people. (100.00%)

The Aral region consists of 22 rural districts, in which there are 57 rural settlements, 1 city administration:

The Arys I - Kandyagash railway (double-track, broad-gauge, diesel traction) runs through the district. A 32-km single-track railway line departs from the Aral Sea station east-north-east, serving the development of sodium chloride and sodium sulfate in the vicinity of the village of Zhaksykylysh.

2 km to the north of the city, the Irgiz -Aralsk-Aiteke-Bi highway runs (section of the M-32 Samara - Shymkent highway). The Novokazalinsk - Aralsk section has asphalt pavement. From Aralsk to the border of the region, an asphalt highway , then towards Irgiz and Karabutak, the dirt road was in a very broken condition. In 2009, the reconstruction of this road was started as part of the construction of the Western Europe - Western China Autobahn. The total length of the road will be 8445 km, of which 2787 km across Kazakhstan, one third of them (811 km) will pass through the Kyzylorda region. ^{[6] [7]}

Until the early 1980s, navigation along the Syr Darya River and sea links from the port of Aralsk to neighboring Karakalpakstan (port of Muynak ) were developed.

• Kosanov, Amirzhan Sagidrakhmanovich

• Akimat of Kyzylorda region.
• Encyclopedia of the Kazakh SSR, vol. 2, p. 143.
• Kazakhstan geography. Textbook for high schools.

• History and economy of the Aral region (site of akimat of Kyzylorda region (inaccessible link)
• Development of the Northern and Eastern Aral Sea region in the 19th century
• Renaissance Island: truth and speculation about the Aral Landfill
• A shop for processing shubat will open in the Aral region of the Kyzylorda region
• Aralsk is waiting for a new plant (inaccessible link)
• International Danish-Kazakh fishing project "From Kattegat to the Aral Sea"