Private Tour

Aral Sea Adventures (2 day)

Name: Aral Sea Adventures (2 day)
Price: 699 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.95 (39 reviews)

Overview

Available languages

English

2 days

Mobile ticket

Two cars (one sedan and one 4x4) will serve during this round trip to Aral Sea shore. Total, around 1`000 kms will be driven in two days. Six important touristic destinations will be visited (Aral Sea shore, Ustyurt Canyons, Muynak ship cemetery, Muynak museum, Savitsky museum and Chilpik kala fortress). Experienced drivers drive smoothly in the desert conditions. Key visitable areas are included while the tour can start or finish in Khiva, Urgench or Nukus cities, upon the desire of the visitor. Customers benefit from immersive cultural experience in Karakalpakstan, insider knowledge to Aral Sea region, and memorable encounters with local traditions in western part of Uzbekistan.

Additional Info

Travelers should have at least a moderate level of physical fitness

Minimum age is 15 for this tour

Disclaimer: transportation time is included in the total duration

What To Expect

Day 1

Chilpik - Savitsky museum - Aral Sea

The age of this Zoroastrian ancient monument - dakhma Chilpyk (Shylpyk, Chilpak Kala) is more than 2200 years. Chilpyk is a round roofless tower, 15 meters high and 65 meters in diameter, built at the top of the rounded natural hill, 43 km away from Nukus. The Zoroastrians used it for burial of the dead. The remains of the deceased were thrown in the tower to the birds of prey. Later the bones were collected in earthenware vessels-ossuaries and dug into the ground. This way of disposal was connected with the Zoroastrian philosophy, which prohibited defiling the land with corrupted bodies.

30 minutes • Admission Not Included

State Museum of Art named after I.V. Savitsky

The Nukus Museum of Art, or more properly the State Museum of Arts of the Republic of Karakalpakstan named after I.V. Savitsky, is located in Nukus, Karakalpakstan. It possesses the world’s second largest collection of Russian avant-garde artworks, as well as galleries of antiquities and Karakalpak folk art. The State Museum of Arts of Karakalpakstan was founded in 1966 at the initiative of Moscow artist Igor Vitalievich Savitsky (1915-1984). The museum holds the largest art collection in Central Asia, and its approximately 100,000 items provide chronological coverage of more than four millennia.

1 hour • Admission Not Included

Day 2

Muynak ship cemetery - Mizdakhan

The Regional History and Aral Sea Museum

The Muynak Regional Studies Museum also known as Ecological Museum of Muynak can be called one of the most unique museums in Uzbekistan. This museum, modest by metropolitan standards, with less than two hundred exhibits, tells the visitors a tragic story of the bygone era, when things were humming in this region and the Aral Sea was so large and affluent that it was called as sea. The museum of the Aral Sea has collected paintings of Soviet artists, old photographs, specimens of flora and fauna, canned goods, produced by the local cannery, household items and articles of arts and crafts of the peoples who lived on the Aral Sea shores, and other artifacts to form a single picture of the past and present of the Aral Sea as a whole.

30 minutes • Admission Not Included

Ships Cemetery

Muynak (Moynoq, in Uzbek Latin, Mojnak in Karakalpak) was once the largest port on the Aral, a finger of coast where a significant part of the Aral catch was processed and canned. In 1921 as the Volga region suffered a terrible famine, Lenin appealed to the Aral fleet for help and within days 21,000 tonnes of fish had been dispatched, saving thousands of Russian lives. Today it is a nightmarish town of stagnant, corrosive pools and deserted factories, the victim of a Soviet crusade to overcome nature. Not a single fish can survive in the sea, 10,000 fishermen have lost their jobs and the port of Muynak has lost its ratson d'etre. The only reason to visit it is a macabre one; to witness the death throes of the sea and the dramatic sight of dozens of deserted fishing boats rusted at their moorings, submerged in sand, riding the crest of a sand dune, 160 kilometres from the shoreline. Many of the ships have been sold off for scrap in recent years so you might have to hunt around

1 hour • Admission Not Applicable

Mizdakhan Necropolis

Mizdakhan necropolis, ancient cemetery, located next to the remains of the Gyaur-Kala fortress, is one of the oldest and most visited pilgrimage sites of Karakalpakstan. The fortress received its name during the Arab conquest, and means “a fortress of disbelievers”, as scientists found that the inhabitants of the fortress used to be Zoroastrians before the Arab conquest. Mizdakhan arose near the city of the fire-worshipers in around II-IV centuries BC, then it turned into one of the most revered Muslim shrines of Central Asia. The name of the city of Khojali, located on the bank of the Amudarya near the capital of Karakalpakstan - Nukus, means "the land of pilgrims". Necropolis of Mizdakhan (IV century BC - XIV century AD) is a huge complex of age-diverse antiquities and includes one of the most ancient cemeteries in Central Asia.

30 minutes • Admission Not Applicable

What‘s Included

Private transportation

Hotel pick up and drop off

Air-conditioned vehicle

Audio guide materials

Lunch

Dinner

Savitsky museum (Nukus) entrance ticket is USD 7/person

Aral Sea Museum (in Muynak) - entrance ticket is USD 3/person

Accommodation at yurt camp - USD 40 per person that offers dinner and breakfast

Pickup points

Ancient Khiva

Mashal 128 Khiva Uzbekistan

Deshon Qala Guest House

Khorezm Street 69a Khiva Uzbekistan

Zarafshon Boutique Hotel

Pakhlavon Mahmud 60 Khiva Uzbekistan

Khiva Boyjon Ota

Zargarlar 51a Khiva Uzbekistan

Hotel Sarbon Khiva

Gazchi Khiva Uzbekistan

Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

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