Rebirth Island. Aralsk-7

Voz Island (Ostrov Vozrozhdeniya, which translates as Rebirth Island or Renaissance Island), was an island in the Aral Sea. The former island’s territory is split between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. In the 1960s, the island began to grow in size as the Aral Sea began drying up as the Soviet Union dammed its feeder rivers for agricultural projects. The shrinkage of the Aral continued and accelerated over time. Vozrozhdeniya became a peninsula in mid-2001 when the channel to its south dried up completely and became a land bridge. Upon the disappearance of the Southeast Aral Sea in 2008, Vozrozhdeniya became technically indistinguishable from the surrounding land. In 1954, the Soviet Union constructed a biological weapons test site called Aralsk-7 there. The main town on the island, where scientists and employees of the complex lived, was called Kantubek, which lies in ruins today, but once held approximately 1,500 inhabitants. The official Soviet name of this city was the same as the weapons complex itself: Aralsk-7. It contained simple infrastructure that consisted of a social club, a stadium, a couple of schools and shops. After the Soviet Union dissolved, the idea of mass destruction lost its relevance; Aralsk-7 was closed in November 1991. All people who lived on Vozrozhdeniaya Island were evacuated within several weeks; civil and military infrastructure were abandoned and Kantubek became a ghost town. О́стров Возрожде́ния — бывший остров в юго-западной части Аральского моря. С 1942 по 1992 годы на острове действовал военный биохимический полигон с условным наименованием «Бархан». Официальное название: 52-я полевая научно-исследовательская лаборатория (ПНИЛ-52). На острове в течение пятидесяти лет проводились испытания микробиологического (бактериологического) оружия на подопытных животных (собаки, обезьяны, крысы, лошади, овцы). В 1992 году президентом РФ Б.Ельциным издан указ о закрытии полигона. В октябре — ноябре 1992 года воинский контингент (вместе с семьями) был передислоцирован в Россию, биолаборатория — демонтирована, документация и часть оборудования вывезена, остальное было брошено на острове. music - Mark Morgan – California Revisited, Mark Morgan – Desert Nomads, Mark Morgan – Mannerites, Mark Morgan – God’s Militia, Mark Morgan – Radiation Cloud, camera - panasonic gh2, lenses - panasonic 14-42 , panasonic 45-150, stabilizer - flycam junior, september 2016