Moynaq (also written Mo'ynoq or Muynak) was once a prosperous seaport on the Aral Sea, home to a thriving fishing fleet and cannery. Today it is a ghost town sitting in the middle of a desert, the water gone — retreated more than 150 km to the north — and the ships left rusting on the sand where the harbour used to be.
The Aral Sea disaster is one of the worst environmental catastrophes in history. From the 1960s onward, Soviet-era irrigation projects diverted the rivers feeding the sea to grow cotton in the desert. The water shrank decade by decade. Moynaq, which once had a lakeside boulevard and a busy port, is now stranded in the Aralkum — the new desert that formed where the sea used to be.
The rusting ship graveyard is what most visitors come to see. A couple of dozen hulks sit tilted and corroding on the dry lakebed, some clustered together, others scattered across the flats. A concrete anchor monument stands on a bluff overlooking the former shoreline — a memorial to the port that no longer exists. The scale of the emptiness hits harder than any photograph prepares you for.
There are no tourist services in Moynaq to speak of, so bring food and water. Hire a taxi from Nukus for the day — the drive takes around two hours each way. Ask your driver to take you out to the ships and to the old cliff edge for the best view across the former sea bed.