At one o’clock we have dinner

Aral Sea to the foothills of the Western Tien-Shan and Gissar-Alay. An unforgettable impression is created by harmonious arrangement of numerous sand-dunes lying longitudinally and reminding of parallel wave crests. This ‘sand sea’ looks motionless, but it is not recommended to walk deep into it without urgent need. Over centuries only camel-driven caravans dared to travel here following the Great Silk Road routes.

Sand, clay and stony deserts cover about 40% of the country’s area. Despite rigorous conditions these deserts are full of life. In spring their vast expanses are covered with multicolour carpets of bloom – red poppies and tulips, violet malcolmias, blue and yellow irises. Their life span is short: in May they wither away, the green grass turns yellow. All the local plants have adapted in various ways to their desert lot. Predominating in the deserts and plains, there grow wormwoods, saltwort, sand acacias, haloxylons, tamarisks, camel’s thorns, and other herbs and bushes. Their roots reach as deep as the water-bearing layers of soil. People say about such plants: “their heads are in the sun while their feet are in water”.

The animals inhabiting deserts are modest in their need for food and water. Tortoises, snakes, small and 1.5-long giant lizards have almost the same color as that of the surface they crawl on. In the steppes there caper saiga antelopes. With the approach of scorching heat, Menzbir marmots and yellow gophers hide in their burrows and go into hibernation till the next spring.

In the mid-20th century the southern part of the