Fischerei am Aralsee, Holzstich, erschienen 1897 - Stock-Grafiken

Historical view of the fishing on the Aral Sea in winter. It was once the fourth largest lake in the world - with an area of almost 70,000 square kilometers. The slow drying out of the lake is one of the greatest human-made environmental disasters in the world. In the early 1960s, the Aral Sea began to disappear. Its only two tributaries, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, which arise in the high mountains in the neighboring countries of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan around 2000 kilometers from the Aral Sea, only reached the mouth as rivulets. The reason: intensive irrigation management along the rivers. Wood engraving, published in 1897.