TAG | Aktau city

Apr/21

Boszhira – the bottom of the dried up sea

No comments · Posted by Sergei Rzhevsky in Nature, Regions, Travel

Urochishche Boszhira is one of the most beautiful places in Kazakhstan. It is a whole range of rock formations of various sizes and shapes located at the bottom of a huge canyon in the western part of the Ustyurt plateau on the Mangyshlak peninsula in Mangystau Oblast of southwestern Kazakhstan.

Boszhira is huge. It will take more than one day to explore it. The weather in Mangyshlak is harsh and unpredictable. The best time to travel to Boszhira is summer. From autumn to mid-spring it often rains here washing out already bad roads. Boszhira on Google Maps. Photos by: Alexey Zhirukhin.

magnificent landscapes

Tags: Aktau city · Mangystau oblast

Apr/20

Collapsed Land of Cape Dzhigalgan

No comments · Posted by Sergei Rzhevsky in Nature, Regions, Travel

Cape Dzhigalgan (“collapsed land” in the Kazakh language) is the main attraction of the Tub-Karagan peninsula located on the Mangyshlak peninsula on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea in the west of the Mangystau region.

This is a mountain range with a giant hollow of almost perfect round shape littered with numerous rocks. Some boulders reach the size of a small village house. The rocks are scattered so chaotically that there is a feeling that the collapse has occurred recently. Cape Dzhigalgan on Google Maps. Photos by: Roman Smirnov.

very picturesque place

Tags: Aktau city · Mangystau oblast

Oct/19

Mysterious Stone Eggs of Mangyshlak

No comments · Posted by Sergei Rzhevsky in Nature, Travel

The Valley of Balls is one of the most interesting and unusual sights of Mangystau Oblast and Western Kazakhstan. Stones of almost perfect spherical shape are scattered along the plateau and its slopes. The height of some stones reaches 1.5 meters or more.

The origin of these stone spheres is still not clear. Their shapes are gradually changing and the landscape becomes more and more mysterious. The Valley of Balls on Google Maps. Photos by: Roman Smirnov.

unique geological formations

Tags: Aktau city · Mangystau oblast

Jun/13

Aktau – a city built from scratch in a waterless desert

No comments · Posted by Alex Smirnov in Cities, Video

Aktau is a city in south-western Kazakhstan built in a waterless desert on the shores of the Caspian Sea in the Soviet times. It was the center of mining of uranium ore, its processing and enrichment.

Nowadays, it is the center of oil and natural gas extraction in Mangystau region. Aktau port is the only port in Kazakhstan used for international transportation of crude oil and petroleum products.