One of the worst man-made disasters inflicted upon nature may concern what the Soviet Union did to the Aral Sea during the 1960’s. The government diverted the two rivers that fed into the sea. The Aral Sea has been shrinking since.
Of what was once a thriving sea port city all that remains dust and ships. Ships the their befuddled owners did not remove in time, so they lay upon the sand, telling the story of what used to be.
Visitors of yesterday came for the sea, fish, canaries and ships. Today visitors come to look upon the puzzling remains of abandon ships upon the sand. Mo’ynoq, today a graveyard for the former seafaring vessels, still brings in the tourist with their gazing eyes looking upon the skeletal remains of what was once the livelihood of thousands of dependents.
Tourists walk the sunbaked desert with the same curiosity as an archaeologist through a forgotten city. It’s as though this city tells the story of so many that have fallen before, only this time the gradual breakdown of the financial, cultural and ecological infrastructure on any lost city has been put on fast forward. It’s as though the decay of Rome happened within decades not centuries.
The ships themselves stand at tributes to what once was, telling the lonely story to all that will listen. On cannot ignore the eerie chill that creeps up the spine as the sun sets on these last remaining vestiges of their former glory, the visitor feels an urgency to get back to a populated area with lights, sounds and people, lest they come face to face with ghosts from the past.
Below a glimpse of the former glory of the shore town in Its heyday.
