9 incredible photos of an eerie ship graveyard in the middle of the Uzbekistan desert

In Uzbekistan, an eerie ship graveyard filled with hauntingly beautiful shipwrecks beckons.

The Moynaq Ship Graveyard is literally a ghost town in the middle of the desert.

It was once a busy Soviet fishing port on the Aral Sea — once one of the four largest lakes in the world — but today, nothing but desert remains.

Let's take a closer look and see how these ships came to be stranded in the middle of the desert. 

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Once one of the four largest lakes in the world (it was 26,300 square miles), the Aral Sea dried up when the rivers feeding it were diverted for irrigation purposes.

Aral Sea translates to "Sea of Islands" for the over 1,100 islands it was once home to. Today, dozens of ships are disintegrating in the scorching desert heat.

Today, the nearest shore is almost 100 miles away.

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