DISCOVERING KARAKALPAKSTAN

With a land area of 165,700 km² and a population of just under 2 million, Karakalpakstan situated in the far northwest of Uzbekistan accounts for about one third of the latter’s territory, but barely 5 percent of its population. Mainly desert, it encompasses a large part of the Ustyurt plateau to the northwest; the Kyzyl-Kum desert to the east; and the growing Karakum desert to the north, once the bed of the receding Aral Sea.The region’s fertile area comprises the Amu Darya river delta homeland of the ancient civilization of Khorezm, which today is shared by three jurisdictions in two countries: the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan and the oblast or province of Khorezm in Uzbekistan; and the oblast or province of Daşoguz (formerly known as Dashkhovuz) in Turkmenistan. Karakalpakstan’s capital was initially Turtkul, close to the Amu Darya river, but upon becoming an autonomous republic in the 1930s, Nukusuntil then a downstream garrison town became the capital.

Karakalpaks, which means “black hats,” belong to the kipchak linguistic sub-group of Turkic peoples, close to

Kazaks and Kyrgyz. Originally cattle breeding nomads and gypsies from the Volga region, they appeared on the lower reaches of the Syr Darya river towards the end of the 17th century, east of present-day Karakalpakstan. Later, they migrated westwards, crossing the lower reaches of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers, occupying the desert fringes of Khorezm.

For hundreds of years, the once heavily populated Amu Darya delta achieved considerable power and prosperity under ancient Khorezm, based on extensive irriga- tion-based agriculture. However, from the second half of the 20th century onwards, gradual climate change and the ongoing desiccation of the Aral Sea, owing to the unsustainable agriculture practices of the Soviet period, destroyed Karakalpakstan’s fisheries industry. This also resulted in a harsher climate, a shorter growing season, and other environmental degradation and public health problems.Thus, the economy, once heavily dependent on fisheries, is mainly agricultural, supported by cotton, rice, and fruits, such as apricots, grapes, plums, pears and, especially, melons, with cattle and