Environmental issues in Kazakhstan at the Semipalatinsk nuclear testing facility (in fact a large zone south of Kourchatov (Курчатов)) and along the Chinese border. The Central Asian Regional Environmental Center is located in Kazakhstan, which fosters regional cooperation on environmental issues. Most of Kazakhstan’s water supply has been polluted by industrial and agricultural runoff and, in some places, radioactivity. The Aral Sea, which is shared with Uzbekistan, has shrunk to three separate bodies of water because of water drawdowns in its tributary rivers. A Soviet-era biological weapons site is a threat because it is located on a former island in the Aral Sea that
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