Nukus is the capital of an Autonomous Republic within Uzbekistan: Karakalpakstan. It is located in the north of the country next to the Aral Sea.
Though it can’t measure up to Uzbekistan’s Silk Road cities in terms of impressive architecture, it does showcase the history of the Karakalpak people with its beautiful jewelry, tapestry, and other national artifacts. One of the most intriguing museums to be found in Nukus is that which contains the Savitsky collection of art forbidden in the Soviet Union. From Nukus you can drive to the Aral Sea. The Aral Sea was once a large and important navigable sea in Central Asia, split between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
It had rich resources for industrial fishing and local canned fish was produced. Muynak was once one of the many flourishing fishing towns on the shores of the Aral Sea. But since 1960, the Aral Sea has been rapidly shrinking as a result of water diversion and overuse of the river water for irrigation purposes. What was once water is now a desert littered with the rusting hulks of ships, beached forever in a chilling reminder of the fragile balance between nature and humans.
