Central Asia has hardly ever been associated with the sea and with maritime matters, even though its physical geography contains two major maritime surfaces.: the Caspian Sea which has a surface area of 371,000 square kilometers, and the Aral Sea, the surface area of which up to 1960 was some 68,000 square kilometers, including its numerous islands. This research, which focuses on the early-modern and modern historical periods, looks into the position and role of these water surfaces and their respective littorals in western Central Asia’s social history.
- People involved: Bruno De Cordier