ARAL, a vast lake or inland sea, in the west of Asia, situated between lat. 43° 42' and 46° 44' N., and long. 58° 18' and 61° 46' E. It was known to the Persian geographers as the Sea of Khuwârizm or Khwarezm, from the neighbouring district of the Chorasmii, and derives its present name from the Kirghese designation of Aral Denghis, or Sea of Islands. Its length, from north to south, is 265 miles, and its breadth, from east to west, about 145. It is the greatest body of water in the steppes of Asia, next to the Caspian Sea, and is one of the largest lakes in the world. Its level is 117 (or, according to recent explorations, which, however, require verification, 250) feet above the Caspian, which is 84 feet below the Black Sea. It is bounded on the JSΓ. by the Ural steppes; on the W. by the rocky plateau of the Ust-Urt, which separates it from the Caspian; on the S. by the alluvial district of Khiva; and on the E. by the Kysyl-Kum, or Red. Desert, and the Kara-Kum, or Black Desert. In the north the shore is comparatively low, and the coast-line is broken into a number of irregular bays, of which the most important are those of Sary-Chaganak and Paskevitch; and on the west an almost unbroken wall of rock extends from Chernycheff Bay southwards, rising towards the middle to a height of 500 feet. The southern coast is occupied by the delta of the Oxus (Jîhûn, Amu-Daria, El-Jiryan), which divides into a number of channels, the most important of which, beginning from the west, are the Aibugir or Laudan, the Ulu-or Ulkun-Daria (Great River), and the Kuvan-Jarma, Kuk, or Yangy Su (New River), as it is variously called. The Laudan forms a vast swamp, 80 miles long, and about 20 broad, before it disembogues into the sea; and the whole of the neighbouring reaches are ...