about 80% of it is desert or desert-like. in the south there are rivers, and oases. cotton and different kinds of wheat are grown there. in the desert-like areas, there are only small bushes, and camels and goats live there. there are a number of rivers. the most important of these are the amu darya and the syr darya. both flow into aral sea. the amu darya river runs in a southeast–north-westerly direction through the lowlands. it used to flow into the south aral sea, currently it dries up in a desert called aralkum. syr darya flows into north aral sea.