Qońirat

Qonirat stands in the lower delta of the Oxus, amid a country of river channels, reed beds and desert margins south of the Aral Sea. The Aral region formed a frontier between the irrigated settlements of Khwarazm and the pastoral lands beyond. In the early nineteenth century Muhammad Rahim Khan of Khiva brought the Aral country under his authority, extending the reach of the Qungrat rulers. The delta's shifting waters shaped both its settlements and the routes across it.