Understand
Aral is a former fishing village located in Western Kazakhstan near the Aral Sea. In 1920, Lenin famously asked the people of Aral to give fish to feed starving Russians, which they did. The story is commemorated by a mural in the Aral train station. Aral has suffered in recent years due to the retreating Aral Sea. Many tourists come to Aral in order visit ship cemeteries, which, like the Aral Sea itself, are quickly disappearing. Many locals use the metal from the abandoned ships to build fences and walls, and in many ship cemeteries all that is left are skeletons of ships.
