Aral Sea Aral Sea The Aral Sea () was an endorheic lake (one with no outflow) lying between Kazakhstan (Aktobe and Kyzylorda Regions) in the north and Uzbekistan (Karakalpakstan autonomous region) in the south. The name roughly translates as "Sea of Islands", referring to over 1,100 islands that had dotted its waters; in the Turkic languages "aral" means "island, archipelago". The Aral Sea drainage basin encompasses Uzbekistan and parts of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and Iran. Formerly the fourth-largest lake in the world with an area of , the Aral Sea has been shrinking since the 1960s after the rivers that
Facies of the pile dwellings and of the dammed settlements Facies of the pile dwellings and of the dammed settlements The facies of pile dwellings and dammed settlements (Italian: "facies delle palafitte e degli abitati arginati") is a cultural aspect of the middle to late Bronze Age (c. 1600 to 1300 BC) that developed between eastern Lombardy, Trentino and western Veneto. It was followed in the final Bronze Age by the Proto-Villanovan culture and by the Luco culture. The continuity with the previous Polada culture of the ancient Bronze Age seems to be unbroken. The villages, as in the previous phase, are on stilts and are concentrated in the area