Weird! Driving across the Aral Sea bed - Holidays in the Danger Zone: Meet the Stans - BBC travel & politics

[S70184]

watch?v=KlAppbq1nIE

[JellyBellyBingBong]

oh aral sea bed i thought it said anal sea bed

[boardtype]

how come they arent using mask wasnt therepathogenic weapons dumped there wen the soviets were testing?

[KleineHansel]

camul spida camul spida

[TheCOM1993]

hello my fellow geography class

[sixaxisps3azn]

where is this place exactly?, i mean, if i want to visit it, i need to take an airplane with destiny to...?. Thanks.

[rimlicking]

@sixaxisps3azn kazakhstan

[Phatweb]

@sixaxisps3azn google or wikipedia. ps kazakhstan.

[jimmyass]

cost benift analysis at the end of the day. diverted water for greatest economic benifit.

[dulciaan8]

Please people do some research on the internet before posting a comment.

The kazach government started a project back in 2001 to retrieve the sea. With succes and 65 mln US dollars, they built a dike to prevent riverwater to flow in the southern part of the sea. The north part depth is now rapidly growing from 30 meters in 2003 to 42 meters now. It almost reaches the fishing town Araslk again. From 100 kilometres in 2005 to 20 kilometres now. Needless to say, fishing industry is booming.

[vre13]

This kind of like the Tule Lake (or Tulare) in California, but on a larger scale. The lake in California was drained for irrigation purposes and cotton planting replaced the lake.

[strongfelo]

0:19

[realistromeo]

I will say such a large salty body of water being sucked dry may be a blessing in disguise, it is well know that this area is rich in history and was central in the emergence of modern civilization, one wonders when 50+ km of water radius is gone (+125 feet of water) what lies beneath? this rapid geologic reclaimation of land is unparalleled in human history and in such a rich area!

HISTORY HUNTERS NEED TO GET ON THIS NOW! if you follow the Amu darya some distance you may be in for a shock.

[ThePowerWithinMe]

Amazing how communist leaders can impact a sea by diverting 2 large rivers. Why don't they just re-divert the rivers now that the communist leaders that caused this are dead (most likely) and in their graves. The world needs water more than it needs cotton. WTF.

[Crossbowman]

@ThePowerWithinMe People who grow cotton would go bankrupt. And I'm quite sure the world needs cotton more than it needs a sea.

[Caeraebro]

@ThePowerWithinMe Uzbekistan wants to extract the oil and gas from the Aral sea bed,this is why nobody does a thing.Kazakhtan can't revive the sea by itself....

[ThePowerWithinMe]

How many ships were exposed when the water disappeared? Were their hundreds or thousands? Unfortunately they have all probably been ransacked. Still it would be amazing to explore a ship cemetary like this. I'd like to see a 5 hour documentary on the ships and their histories. I am surprised someone hasn't stepped up and done something like this. Opportunity staring filmakers in the face and they don't know it.

[deathgod90210]

when was this?!

[drqutub]

Well if you are too materialistic, than your fate will be similar or worse. No use commenting help them andtake lesson MANKIND.

[mhiggzz11]

lets pray for our world

[Ashvegian]

...left there to rot...and now Western News groups are coming to make an entertaining and informative story out of it, making them money. Gee, you've gotta love the way us rich westerners, and our principles eh? lol

[sanjosesensei]

wow... amazing & sad at the same time.

[knibis95]

so fucking awsome and scary

[Ladiestreat]

That's pretty fucked up.

[ZombieDawgs]

Minefields?

Radioactivity?

Radioactive SANDSTORMS

D:

[J0hannski]

If I was an evil genious, I would build military bases in this place. And there would be underwater bases in the remaining water. It would be fucking epic. Then i'd launch tons nuclear missiles n shit.

[bunnjovi1988]

the Russians beat yah to it they had a bioweapons facility on an island in the middle of the sea

[SharProductionVideos]

so sad...

[smp156]

1:10

i want to live in that ship. i'm so eff'ing sick of nyc

i want to be as far away from civilization as i can get

[Thugz4Real]

lol at 0:09 "were driving across what used to be just a few years ago an ole eh-es THE SEA!" stutter

[jw2327]

Sorry guys. I just watched it again.

I am correct.

[MrThee4156]

why dont they go in it

[jw2327]

YUK! What a horrible woman.

Cool subject & place though! Amazing! They should stop boo-hooing & sensationalising though.

[Piercetp]

@jw2327

I disagree, She is beautiful. And her story is so sad. Imaging having your home destroyed like that.

[khalithistle]

you are a complete moron.

[msadp]

they lost the water but theyselves won more surface to themselves countries!!

[lalababa101]

i love apple pie

[shfbdfi1273]

The Russian stole their sea!

[Dune1884]

what would happen if they opened those rivers ??

[Bzykus]

nothing. it would take tens of years before the sea would come back to its original size

[bb1crew]

get your boogie board

[starshock01]

omg camels...i want a camel now...

[AdirondackMatt]

LOL, same

[BertilUlfsson]

fuck off

[journeymanjim]

Couldn't they make this a tourist attraction? I'd go see it. Some good must come out of this!

[bunnjovi1988]

nah the area is too toxic with all the chemicals in the dust that have accumulated over the years would be a hell of a place to visit though

[WAWAWAWAWWAWAWAWAWAW]

Alexi and Misha used to live there...

[softbullet]

Malditas mentes comunistas hicieron este desastre ecologico...........

[TheKingdomofErnor]

that's why you move, it's not that hard

[TheCrazyFinn]

Yes, suck one part of the planet dry, move to another place, repeat over and over, until you've come full circle and are back where you started off. That's really far sighted.

[Paulbarbato]

I wonder what it was like decades back when the sea was flourishing...

[nabeshabu]

A great wonderful inland sea.

[desertracer94]

geeez the way people think and respond "sigh

[DrangNachWesten]

After some years of russian rules there is no water in a sea hahaha. What a stupid country! Nation of idiots...

[sergioalonzo]

We as humans have destroyed what our creator has given to us...

[GoSuNiguy]

You just noticed that?

[sergioalonzo]

If you plan to reply, at least don't be a smart ass.

[GoSuNiguy]

I'm sorry, I can't help it if people doesn't have common sense.

[DeepestSleep]

Perhaps it's not all that 'common' then, is it?

[ClothCanopy]

What we have done to the surface of this earth in our time on it is not even a pin-prick in the face of the power of nature.

[ImTheMostViewed]

True earthquakes could destroy major cities which have taken centuries to build in a matter of hours...

[HoratioMing]

its more like seconds actualy

[DeepestSleep]

actually, fractions of a second even.

[trigga1uk]

the soviet union f**king something up, surely not!!!

[633214]

great vid

seen it yesterday! lets chat PR

[DirtySouthMafia11th]

Aral sea is coming back right now, everything will be fine!!! I'm living in da Almaty city in Kazakhstan, check out You Tube videos by searching about Almaty Cars and you could tell where all money at!!!

[trigga1uk]

theres an island in the middle of the aral sea where the soviets where testing chemical weapons, some really bad s**t. You can see the facility on google earth.

[flangelet]

Not 'chemical weapons' ... BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS!

I would only go there in a biosuit, if I were you!

[GoodEvenings]

whats it called i wanna google it and find out more

[flangelet]

You answered your own question.

QED

[calimorenaza]

c This vid made me sOOoOoOo wet LOL r

[apks2004]

Right On the money Video!

[KlipKultur]

The BBC is nourishment for dreams.

[nikmak]

WOW

[Alfleftwich]

Those commi's are just as bad as George W. Bush Wacker. He treats the Native Americans the same way.

[deltanator]

really shows how much the Soviet Union cared about its people -_-

[chentex23]

@deltanator Dont get them wrong, I know most people dont like the SU, but they were doing it to water their fields. Not much of a consolation, but its not like they were saying "Heheh, lets take all the water out so we destroy this lake.

[winghun]

@chentex23 actually that is what SU leaders did. they considered Aral Sea as a mistake of nature hence they didn't hesitate when it came to destroy it.

[chentex23]

@winghun Either way, I dont think they did it specifically for the goal of drying it out. Though I'm not defending them.

[ikloo]

@deltanator

I think most of the shrinking happened AFTER the collapse of the USSR. And when I say think I mean I know. There is plenty of evidence, even on wikipedia and youtube, about that.

The main responsible is, IMHO, the government of Uzbekistan, then Astana and only as a last instance the Soviets. The heir governments didn't do much (or didn't do anything) to halt the trend.

[nuttex]

@deltanator You say it like it wasn't obvious. Frankly, no government gives a damn about its people. It's all about how much it's bad.

[TSM8088]

@deltanator This has happened with the Colorado River in the US and is now taking place with the Great Lakes also... Shameful.

[KleineHansel]

@TSM8088

Governments and companies don't give a damn about the nature.

[frtw4428]

@deltanator The USSR's leaders (dating back to Stalin) already had this in mind and knew of these consequences; they still didn't care. The well-being of a giant lake in the middle of the desert didn't matter to their ideology: economic growth and industrialization. I understand the North Aral is recovering (the result of a large dam being built). The South Aral needs the same care, but most of it lies in Uzbekistan and they are too poor to build such a facility (or simply don't care to).

[TheBaerenmenue]

@deltanator well US was not better

[diablitoo86]

wow!!! amazing to look how much we can destroy.

[Ctrustbank]

oh man...all those poor ppl...