Moynaq

Moynaq, also spelled Muynak, is a city in northern Karakalpakstan, an autonomous republic in Uzbekistan, and the seat of the Moynaq district. It was once Uzbekistan's only port city and a centre of industrial fishing and canning on the Aral Sea, with tens of thousands of residents. After a Soviet diversion of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers in the 1960s for cotton irrigation, the sea receded and its remaining water became extremely saline, and the town now stands about 150 km from the water in the Aralkum Desert. Its main attractions are the rusting hulks of the former fishing fleet and a one-room museum of the fishing industry. Dust storms from the dried seabed cause illness among the few residents who remain, most of them Karakalpaks, and since 2018 the Stihia electronic music festival has been held here.