Aral, Ala'er or Alar (simplified Chinese: 阿拉尔; traditional Chinese: 阿拉爾; pinyin: Ālā'ěr; Uyghur: ئارال, ULY: Aral is a sub-prefecture-level city in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, in the People's Republic of China.
This is the city of Tarim University, which was created to assist in the development of the area, that extends into the Taklamakan Desert. This has been achieved by irrigation. Aral has a population of over 200,000.