Geography of Kazakhstan the water in Kazakhstan is polluted by industrial effluents, pesticide and fertilizer residue, and, in some places, radioactive elements. The most visible damage has been to the Aral Sea, which as recently as the 1970s was larger than any of the Great Lakes of North America save Lake Superior. The sea began to shrink rapidly when sharply increased irrigation and other demands on the only significant tributaries, the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya (the latter reaching the Aral from neighboring Uzbekistan), all but eliminated inflow. During the Soviet Era, Kazakhstan received water from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan and Oriental Music Uzbekistan and Oriental Music Uzbekistan and Oriental Music are related because the region exerted a significant influence in oriental music's development. The ancient states of Transoxiana such as Sogdiana, Baktria, Choch played an important role in trade between the East and the West along the Silk Road and in cultural and intellectual exchange between those civilizations. Transoxian craftsmen and merchants exported their goods and took with them musicians, dancers and singers. Artifacts found both in China and Uzbekistan provide clear evidence of such cultural “tours”. The figurines made of clay, bronze and other materials depict men and women with musical