" The Aralqum Desert is too new, too large, and its outline too changeable to be on any maps. It’s a desert that used to be called the Aral Sea. The new name is gaining favor, although it’s not quite as exotic as it sounds. Qum is Uzbek for “sand. "

― Alastair Bonnett , Unruly Places: Lost Spaces, Secret Cities, and Other Inscrutable Geographies