Moynaq District

Setting and history

Moynaq District was created on 19 September 1931. It covers the Amu Darya delta and the land south of the Aral Sea, bordering Qoraozak, Chimboy and Bozatau districts and Kazakhstan’s Aktobe and Kyzylorda regions, across 37,940 km² — much of it the Aralkum desert on the old seabed and the lakes of the delta. The population was 34,100 in 2026.

Moynaq became a town in 1963 and was a major Aral fishing port until the mid-1980s; as the sea retreated, the harbour turned into a ship graveyard.

What to see

The ship cemetery and local museum, the Aral Sea memorial, the flamingo lakes of Sudochye and the Aralkum National Park on former Vozrozhdeniya Island. Trips across the Ustyurt to the Aral’s western shore start here, and the Stihia festival has been held in Moynaq since 2018.