Aral Sea

The Aral Sea was once the world's fourth-largest lake; decades of upstream irrigation for cotton shrank it to a fraction of its original size, and the former port town of Moynaq now sits many kilometers from any water, its rusted fishing fleet stranded on what was once seabed. It's not a conventional highlight, and it isn't presented as one — it's included for travelers who want to understand the region's modern history and ecology alongside its architecture, not instead of it.