The idea behind was the development of the Aral Sea within the last century. The Aral Sea (pronounced Áral sea; Kazakh: Арал теңізі Aral teñizi; Uzbek: Orol dengizi; Russian: Аральское море Aralskoye more; in antiquity Oxiana) was a large, endorheic salt lake in Central Asia. Due to prolonged desiccation, the lake broke up into several considerably smaller parts around the turn of the 21st century. The remnants now comprise the Northern Aral Sea, the Western Aral Sea, the Barsakelme Lake (located between the two), and the Aralkum Desert. All of these lie within the Aral-Caspian Depression in a basin known as the Turan Lowland, and are shared by Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and partly by both. Lake Aibugir, located further south in Turkmenistan and originally connected to the Aral Sea, separated earlier. Due to the continental climate, semi-desert and desert climates prevail. The increasing desiccation of the lake since around 1960 represents one of the world's largest man-made environmental disasters. With an original area of ​​approximately 68,000 square kilometers (almost the size of Bavaria), the Aral Sea was the fourth largest inland sea in the world until the early 1960s.