The Aral Sea is situated between

The Aral Sea is an endorheic lake located in Central Asia, situated between Kazakhstan to the north and Uzbekistan to the south. Specifically, it is bounded by the Aktobe and Kyzylorda regions of Kazakhstan and the Karakalpakstan autonomous republic of Uzbekistan.

Once the fourth-largest inland body of water in the world, the Aral Sea has famously shrunk since the 1960s. This environmental disaster was caused by the Soviet Union's diversion of the two main feeder rivers—the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya—for massive cotton irrigation projects. By the early 21st century, the sea had split into several smaller remnants, primarily the North Aral Sea (in Kazakhstan) and the South Aral Sea (in Uzbekistan). While Turkmenistan and Tajikistan are part of the Aral Sea basin, they do not share a direct coastline with the sea itself.