Mangyshlak Peninsula history. Unique corners of the peninsula

For casual visitors, at first glance, Mangistau may seem colorless and dry, tired of the sun and burned by the wind. For people with roots rooted in this land, this is a blessed land. Each pebble contains the history of the peoples who once inhabited Mangistau.

Since ancient times, the peninsula was called Mangyshlak. The first mentions of the Mangyshak Peninsula were found in the chronicles of the 9th century Arab geographer, Al-Istakhri, under the name Siyah-Kuh (Black Mountain). In sovereign Kazakhstan, a different name has been adopted - Mangistau. Although, truly, the old-timers today still call their fatherland “Mangyshlak” with tenderness and love. Some linguists claim that “Mangyshlak” in translation means “the land of a thousand wintering grounds”, others - “a large village”.

The peninsula is famous for its natural diversity: desert landscape alternates mountain ranges, a plateau with steep cliffs is adjacent to seascapes that caress the eye and soul, oases in rocky gorges - with deepest depression CIS countries, Karagiye. Unique nature reserve it is considered a peninsula on which “as if in a protected box, the entire arsenal of the most diverse manifestations of desert nature is collected.” This is what Professor B. A. Fedorovich wrote about the peninsula.

Since ancient times, it has been customary to call Mangistau the land of 360 saints. Why? The fact is that 360 murids, students of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi - Shopan-ata, Shakpak-Ata, Koshkar-Ata, Masat-Ata, Sultan-epe, Kenty-Baba and others - were sent to Mangyshlak to spread the philosophical teaching of Sufism. Sufis left a deep historical mark on this land, which has since become sacred. Underground mosques carved into rocky cliffs are a landmark of the region. Endless streams of pilgrims from different cities Kazakhstan, as well as other parts of the Earth to unique places of worship and mosques.

The wealth of the region, the abundance of shell rock, allowed people of different tribes and nations to perpetuate their mark in the history of the region. Two thirds of the monuments of all Kazakhstan are located on the Mangyshlak Peninsula. At different times and eras, tribes replaced each other, leaving traces in the form of rock paintings, family signs (tanba), and monuments. Therefore, it is difficult to compete with the inhabitants of the peninsula in the wealth of historical and cultural monuments.

The Great Silk Road passed through the desert region of Mangistau. In the Middle Ages, Mangyshlak served as a gateway to trade and economic relations between East and West. The successor of the great trade mission of the Silk Road in modern times was the Aktau sea trade port, which is also called the “Eastern Gate of Kazakhstan”, the transport artery of Asia and Europe.

And once upon a time, this territory was dominated by the ancient and mighty Tethys Ocean, clear traces of which are still preserved. Five or even ten million years ago, as a result of natural disasters, the land, today called the Ustyurt Plateau, rose, and the sea elements had to retreat, go further into the bowels of the earth, draining vast territories currently called the Mangyshlak Peninsula. The remains of ancient sharks and mollusks are still being discovered by scientists.

Mangyshlak (Mangistau) has long been called the Treasure Peninsula for a reason. A third of all oil is produced in Mangyshlak. In addition to oil veins, the subsoil of the peninsula is rich in reserves of copper, manganese, phosphorites, rock crystal, rare ores, and uranium. It was here that the world's first industrial fast neutron reactor was launched. Currently, the old reactor has served his time. It was replaced by unique desalination plants that provide water to the residents of the young city of Aktau, which surprises all guests with its green attire.

Mangyshlak is a peninsula beloved by historians, geologists and ordinary travelers. The landscapes here are reminiscent of those on Mars - at least make films based on the stories of R. Bradbury. Everywhere you look there is a rocky desert. But at the same time, archaeologists find numerous traces of human habitation - since Paleolithic times. Mangyshlak is shrouded in mysteries, including geological ones. There are cave mosques, Zoroastrian temples, and medieval dilapidated tombs.

The history of the grandiose plan of Peter the Great, which, fortunately, did not come true, is connected with the Mangyshlak Peninsula. A traveler in an SUV has an advantage over an ordinary tourist: there are no excursions to these mysterious and wild places. In this article we will tell you about some of the attractions of the Mangyshlak Peninsula, supporting the description with photographs. We hope you will want to see them in person.

Where is Mangyshlak located?

The peninsula is located in east coast Caspian Sea. This is quite a large area. It is occupied by the whole Mangistauskaya. geographical feature, jutting deep into the Caspian Sea, has its own peninsulas. In the north it is Buzachi, and in the west it is Tyub-Karagan. Mangyshlak is washed by the waters of the Kazakh Gulf in the south. And in the north, the Buzachi Peninsula bends towards the mainland. This creates a small bay called Dead Kultuk and a very narrow water area called Kaydak.

Since the beginning of the independence of the state of Kazakhstan, Mangyshlak (peninsula) was renamed. It was returned to its former name Mangistau. Translated from Kazakh it means “a thousand winter huts”. The capital of the Mangistau region is the city of Aktau. During the Soviet era, it was called because the famous Ukrainian poet, writer and artist served hard labor in these places.

Why is there a desert here?

The geology of the Mangyshlak Peninsula allows us to define it (at least in the northern part) as a continuation of this territory. This territory is incredibly rich in minerals. About a quarter of all is mined here. But the main wealth of Mangistau is uranium ores. It is known that a long time ago the peninsula was covered not with desert, but with green meadows. The large Uzboy River flowed here, flowing into the Caspian Sea. But a change in the riverbed and a sharply continental climate led to the fact that the lush vegetation withered away, giving way to desert landscapes. Mangyshlak has harsh winters with snowstorms. And in the summer the thermometer jumps to seventy degrees!

Geological mystery

Nevertheless, the Mangyshlak Peninsula is rich in healing mineral waters- sodium, chloride, bromine and others. In terms of their chemical composition, these springs are similar to those of Feodosia and Matsesta. There are also thermal springs, reminiscent of those that flow in Kamchatka. Where does so much underground water come from in such an arid place? The secret is simple. The sands of Tuyesu, Bostankum and Sengirkum stretch across the territory of the Mangystau Peninsula from north to south for many hundreds of kilometers. There are also huge depressions here. The sand that has filled them since the retreat of the Caspian Sea plays the role of a sponge. It absorbs precipitation, very little, and retains fresh water without letting it evaporate. Such reservoirs are enriched with mineral salts of rocks. The presence of numerous healing springs suggests that over time balneological resorts will develop here.

Peter the Great and Mangyshlak

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the reformer king came up with the idea of ​​laying waterway from Russia to India. It was supposed to pass along the Volga, Caspian, Amu Darya and Pyanj. Therefore, in the spring of 1715, a detachment of two thousand was sent, led by Captain Bekovich-Cherkassky. His goal was to reveal the direction dead river The Uzba River, which once flowed through Mangyshlak. The peninsula greeted the soldiers very inhospitably. Less than half of the detachment returned. But Peter the Great was inexorable. He again sent Bekovich-Cherkassky on his, this time his last, mission. The Khan of Shir-Gazy was skeptical about the crazy idea of ​​​​turning the flow of the Amu Darya to the west, so that it would occupy the empty channel of the Uzboy and flow into the Caspian Sea. Moreover, the presence of Russians in his kingdom also did not bode well. The detachment, lured to Khiva, disappeared without a trace.

Nature of Mangyshlak

She is truly harsh. But nonetheless Martian landscapes, for which the plateau of the same name on the Mangyshlak Peninsula is especially famous, attract hundreds of brave travelers. Nature here only seems lifeless. In fact, the peninsula is inhabited by about two hundred species of animals and almost three hundred species of plants. There are seals in the Caspian Sea off the coast of Mangyshlak. In shallow waters you can see flocks of flamingos. Other inhabitants of the peninsula include the cheetah, white-bellied arrowhead, four-striped snake, honey badger, manul, caracal, goitered gazelle, Ustyur mouflon, bustard, eagle owl, golden eagle, steppe eagle, vulture, peregrine falcon. Many species of these animals are included in the Red Book.

Mangyshlak Peninsula: attractions

The ancient necropolises look like abandoned cities, lost in the desert: Sultan-Epe, Kenty-Baba, Beket-Ata. Some memorials date from the Early Middle Ages, others were erected in the eighteenth century and were used as a cemetery until the twentieth century.

Tourists love to look at rock paintings that depict camels, horses, and floral patterns mixed with Arabic script and Zoroastrian symbols. The tomb of the Sufi saint and the underground Beket-Ata mosque are especially popular. Tourists also climb to the top of Mount Otpan, where the signal tower of the ancient Kazakhs once stood. Now a memorial has been built there, recreating the shape of this stronghold. Tourists, among other attractions of the peninsula, often visit the Shakpak-Ata cave mosque.

Natural attractions-mysteries

At the very foot of the Karatau Mountains is located. Its bottom is one hundred and thirty-two meters below the level of the World Ocean and approximately one hundred below the Caspian Sea. The depression is huge - fifty by thirty kilometers, and its origin is still inexplicable. What is this: the site of an ancient meteorite?

The Zhygylgan basin is similar to the Karagiye depression. Its dimensions are somewhat more modest - ten kilometers, but its outline is an almost perfect circle. The depression is filled with rock outcrops that from a distance resemble the ruins of ancient castles. Among other natural attractions for which the Mangyshlak Peninsula is famous, photographs often capture the “chalk mountains” of Northern Aktau and the lonely Sherkala rock.

Let me make a reservation right away that it was not me who came up with the idea of ​​calling this southwestern corner of Kazakhstan on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea the Treasure Peninsula. nub1an in his old photo report, or someone else before him. But I won’t be original in choosing the title, because this definition of Mangyshlak really fits like no other. And having traveled almost all of Kazakhstan in past years, only on these May holidays (there - May, not May!) I got to perhaps its most beautiful (on par perhaps with my favorite) and most tourist place.

But the fact is that Mangyshlak is also the Land of SUVs. There are a lot of jeepers driving around the Mangyshlak deserts, but you can see very little here without a jeep. So I put off this trip for several years until I finally became a passenger in a gray Toyota Prado. It’s worth saying “thank you” to the owner of this Toyota, Olga - I was only a passenger here, and she led this trip. She was also with us darkiya_v and her friend Maria, and with such a strange and beautiful carriage on the last day of April we moved to the southeast.

I will write more about Mangyshlak only in a couple of months (see), but for now - a traditional “return” review of the trip and some thoughts about a new (and possibly one-time) format of off-road travel for me.

The most difficult and unpleasant thing about traveling in Mangyshlak is the “destination” (the car analogue of “drop-off”), which takes at least 3 days with one driver, and even those with skill - from morning to evening on the roads, at night - in bedbug-infested hotels wherever necessary. In terms of kilometers, the shortest way to Mangyshlak is through Astrakhan, but at the border at the beginning of May, queues are inevitable, and beyond the border the “Ganyushka road” leads to Atyrau, along which even a good jeep takes 8 hours to travel 300 kilometers. That's why Olga chose way through Saratov- almost all the thousands of kilometers to Mangyshlak have good asphalt and a relatively calm border in Ozinki. The main disadvantage of this road is that it is incredibly boring:

During the first day we drove almost non-stop for a little more than 1000 kilometers, passing Saratov right through and spending the night in the town Ershov, in the station hotel "Dolphin", for check-in, everyone had to fill out 3 pieces of paper, and opposite our room there was a dentist's office without amenities. But how can you pass by a monument to the Great Patriotic War, signed in hexameter, indifferent?! One of the strange surprises with which the Russian hinterland is so rich:

At the border, I was embarrassed and asked the border guard for a migration document. As it turned out, you don’t need it for a foreign passport for up to 30 days, but since people travel across the border on trains and buses mainly with internal passports, they give migration cards to everyone by default, and I just didn’t think before that this is not necessary. Beyond Ozinki to Uralsk is the only bad section of this road, but even that one is now being reconstructed. Uralsk in 2009 it was the first city in Kazakhstan that I saw, but this time we went there mainly to exchange rubles for tenge, buy SIM cards and stock up on groceries. On my last visit, I explored Uralsk quite well ( . || . || .), but apparently very little has changed since then.

Meanwhile, even beyond Ershov, fields and forested fields were replaced by a spacious windy steppe with gnarled karachags, and abroad Russian churches were replaced by towns of mausoleums. , since then quite dilapidated, we drove along the sunset, hoping to make it to Atyrau. But in the end we turned into a village with a more appropriate name for the St. Petersburg environs, Inderborsky, where we spent the night in a small hotel with a frog in the bathroom and a Mangyshlak spherical stone at the gate.

Two days of almost non-stop (except for overnight stays) driving on a flat road through monotonous landscapes had exhausted everyone by that time, and Olga drove the Toyota into the steppe along dirt roads along a quiet freight railroad. Not far from Inderborsky - salty Inder lake, a sort of little Baskunchak.

As a result, through the steppe, cutting the corner past Atyrai, we drove in time and gasoline for about the same amount of time as we would have driven along the highways, but much more interesting. And I don’t know what is more impressive in the Steppe - the vastness or the entities that suddenly materialize in this emptiness every now and then, like an ancient abandoned cemetery tens of kilometers from the nearest winter huts.

And the asphalt road here looks like this, and this landscape does not change for hours, days, hundreds and thousands of kilometers. It is primarily diversified by self-satisfied camels, on which in the spring the skin hangs moth-eaten by a coat, and at the sight of females they roar like strange and powerful machines.

By the evening of the third day we arrived at Beyneu- to the gates of the Mangystau region, from which it would take another whole day to cut along the highway to the regional center. Beyneu is a railway junction, and last fall I spent the night there. But it seems that Beyneu is the most nondescript city I have seen in my life. Only by railway, dodging the noisy American diesel locomotives, the ubiquitous camels roam, and the windows of our hotel overlooked a gas station with an invariably gigantic queue - gas here costs 6 rubles (in tenge, of course), and people are frightened by the imminent rise in price.

On the fourth day of the journey, we were tired and angry - we had been driving for so long, but we still hadn’t really seen anything! But beyond Beineu, the “destination” gives way to the main part of the trip. 20 kilometers further along the highway - Old Beyneu, it seems, is not even a populated area, but simply a tract with a huge cemetery and the first of the 5 Mangyshlak underground mosques on our way:

And then Olga peered for a long time at the side of the road on the left. At some point, we saw a lopsided sign “Beket-Ata” - that was the name of the main Mangyshlak saint, the spiritual father of the Kazakh tribe of the Adaevites, whose name is given to both the mosque in Old Beineu and the mosque in the Oglandy tract, to which ours lay further path. 140 kilometers of this road:

But if you think that this was a test, you are in vain. On the dry steppe, on ruts made in the grass, sometimes you drive smoother than on other asphalt, and all the obstacles, unevenness, bends, forks - all this only made you happy as a reason for the work of thought after three days unbearably monotonous path. The grass along the road was naturally dotted with turtles:

And then we, like those heroes of Soviet and tsarist expeditions to the Karakum, “saw the repairs of Ustyurt.” And they saw it from above - here you are driving along a flat and flat steppe, and suddenly the steppe falls, revealing grandiose panoramas. There is something marine about them, and this is no coincidence: the chinks are truly ancient cliffs, the shores of shrunken seas. On one of them, in the same Oglandy tract, there is another underground mosque Beket-Ata, the main shrine of Mangyshlak. It is carved right into the slope of the cliff, and from its top one can see perhaps the most grandiose view in all of Mangyshlak. At the top there is a pilgrimage center, and the well-appointed staircase to the mosque visible below is only open for prayers, but we climbed up it through the fence.

A well-knurled grader leads to Beket-Ata from the Aktau side, and even collective taxis carry pilgrim passengers, mostly locals and not tourists. Boszhira is a completely different matter, and although according to the map it is separated from Beket-Ata by only a couple of tens of kilometers, on a more or less beaten road between them you can drive for half a day - there may be no car descents from the chinks for tens of kilometers. But even here Olga found a shortcut:

Boszhira- this is another tract under repair in the southeast of Mangyshlak, tens of kilometers from the nearest populated area through labyrinths of white dusty primers and knurled ruts. You can’t get here without an SUV or just a fairly passable car, but Boszhira is worth it, and it is she who becomes the face of Mangyshlak in the notes of most travelers:

We set up camp on a hillock, but in this remote place a crowd of people had gathered even without us - behind the rocks an ethno-festival was planned, where guests from Moscow to Kyrgyzstan gathered.

And I put on a Pashtun plaid from distant Peshawar, which he gave me before the trip Svyatoslav Kaverin(you can buy similar things from him), and under the same blanket I slept two out of three nights in a tent:

On the road from Boszhira to Aktau there are miracles of your own. Here, for example, is the closest village (a measly 60 kilometers with several forks!) to it Seneca, over which a cliff hangs on one side and dunes on the other:

Huge and ancient necropolis Shopan-Ata at the underground mosque on the road to Beket-Ata. Pilgrims usually pass both of them, since Sopan was Becket’s mentor:

Wells Novy Uzen, according to journalists in 2011, became famous under the Kazakh name Zhanaozen. It turned out to be a large, monotonous, but fairly well-kept city, which reminded me of a hot summer. And we passed “that same” square, but now nothing reminds us of the tragic events there.

Between Zhanaozen and Aktau - spacious Karagiye depression:

At its bottom (somewhere in the distance in the frame above) there was nadir The USSR, and in the world it is fifth or sixth in this indicator after the Dead Sea and several depressions in Africa, Arabia and Xinjiang - the route crosses Karagiye at an altitude of -110 meters, and the very bottom lies below -120.

IN Aktau, former Shevchenko, we arrived after dark, but even in the dark it was clear that this was a large and well-kept city with impressive late-Soviet buildings. We stayed at the Three Dolphins hotel, which looked pretentious, but was actually inexpensive and very cozy.
The capital of Mangyshlak was built from scratch in the 1960-80s in completely unusual conditions for Soviet city planners, the complete absence of fresh water, but this absence is not felt in any way even now, although all the water in the city comes from desalination plants. Aktau is the youngest regional center of post-Soviet countries, and yet it is really very interesting city with a huge cave under the embankment or a lighthouse on the roof of a high-rise building, from the top floor of which I took this view:

Closer to noon, local jeepers Ivan and Irina arrived at the hotel in a diesel Toyota Prado, and in two cars we set off further along Mangyshlak. In general, the routes along the “treasure peninsula” consistently form a circle in which, if you draw it like a dial with the route to Beineu through “1”, Boszhira and Beket-Ata are at “3”, Zhanaozen at “5”, Aktau at “7” , and at “9”, at the westernmost point of the route, at the narrowest point of the Caspian Sea - a small town Fort Shevchenko, forming a double system with a port village Bautino. This is an unexpected fragment of Russian Turkestan among the Mangyshlak deserts, and here in the foreground is a chapel built by Armenian merchants for the 20th anniversary of the conquest of Khiva, and in the background is the squat Bautin lighthouse of the 1850s. In the distance beyond the sea, the Seal Islands are not visible, on which the fugitive Cossacks of the beaten Stenka Razin were still hiding.

Again the steppe, weeds, camels, pillars, ruts... This is what driving on the steppe in two or more cars looks like, if you are not the first in the column:

We were going to Zhigylgan, which translated from Kazakh means Fallen Earth. For local Russians, it’s simply Failure:

Although the entire coast of the rocky Tyub-Karagan peninsula extending from the “big” Mangyshlak consists of such failures, forming a characteristic “saw” on the map. Around Zhigilgan we rode along winding roads, looked for dinosaur tracks in its boulders, and when it got dark, together with a third car that turned up, in which the whole family of Muscovites arrived, we stopped in a quiet place for the night to barbecue.

Early in the morning I went to the shore of the Caspian Sea, but could not swim in it - in May it is still quite cold here. And the appearance of the fragrant bank with short grass is somehow more northern than southern:

Meetings with other travelers in the Mangyshlak steppes are not uncommon. According to Olga, only among her acquaintances at least 5 groups plowed the steppe at the same time as us - and for example, those Muscovites from Zhigylgan were not one of them. For example, further along Tyub-Karagan there is a whole “Unfashionable Club” on the road:

In general, Tyub-Karagan is perhaps the most interesting part of Mangyshlak, quite worthy of Ustyurt. There are also a couple of underground mosques, where May tourists visit more often than pilgrims, and the caretakers are sincere and hospitable. Closer to Zhigilgan, away from the sea - Sultan Epe:

There are much more necropolises in the Mangyshlak steppes than auls and winter huts - perhaps because the local Kazakhs began to live in settled houses only under the Soviets, but have been finding a posthumous home from time immemorial. On many walls and tombstones there are Adaev’s graffiti with horses, camels, sabers, pistols, and abstract signs. But the open palms are older traces of the Turkestan Sufis who enlightened the local steppe:

And Tyub-Karagan are canyons of seasonal rivers descending to the sea. Their landscapes are sometimes frankly fantastic:

And if the cliffs of Ustyurt are the shores of ancient seas, then on Tyub-Karagan there is a real sea, albeit one that was once separated from the single World Ocean. But no, the Caspian is not a lake, much more not a lake than Baikal or the Aral.

On the advice of Ivan (who left us on Zhigilgan), we turned into a canyon, along the bottom of which a narrow-gauge railway once ran. The canyon turned out to be an oasis with plenty of greenery. At the exit from the canyon under a mountain in the shape of a wise toad, we found ourselves on a picnic with a broken company of Russian people from Aktau:

The canyon led almost to the beginning of the asphalt road, and we stopped at Shetpe- a small village on the Beineus highway, almost in the center of the Mangistau region. In the hotel, the windows looked out onto the technical base, where a camel wandered in the morning, and the watchman chased it between tractors with stones. In the morning we were greeted by flags, music in the square, a sports run - in civilization, while we were spinning around the steppes, celebrating the May holidays:

The most famous attraction in the vicinity of Shetpe is the so-called Valley of the Balls. In fact, round nodules, sometimes actually approaching a ball in shape, are found throughout Mangyshlak, at least its northern part, but here they form entire fields. At a quick glance, they are not as impressive as canyons or chinks, but you can walk among them for hours:

This time I again did not see either the karakurt or the salpuga. But prettier living creatures such as birds, turtles or lizards have been encountered on Mangyshlak more than once:

But having gone to the mountain Sherkala, we just shrugged our shoulders, “Another remnant, but how many of them have we already seen?”, and were completely too lazy to go to the Valley of Castles for the nearest chinq. 6 days of “travel” there and back, 5 days on Mangyshlak itself - but the overflow of impressions here comes quickly.

And now we are going home. A couple of years ago there was a difficult “road of lost wheels” between Aktau and Beyneu, but in 2014-16 it was replaced by a completely normal route. It was built partly by the Turks, partly by Kazakhstan itself, and which contractor is regularly felt as a fifth point, of course, in favor of the Turks. From Shetpe to Beineu there are several cliffs forming a staircase:

We said goodbye to Mangyshlak about 20 kilometers from the highway, having spent the night among the steppe grass in a completely tourist place at the western chinks, facing the low-lying oil peninsula of Buzachi, separated from Mangyshlak by the dry Dead Kultuk Bay, which has turned into a salt marsh. And although the landscape here is not so grandiose, of the three nights spent in the field, this overnight stay was the best - away from people, under a clear wind, on warm earth, very close to the bright steppe stars.

And another day of driving, which was at least a little diversified only by a broken gazelle, which we took in tow between Beineu and Kulsary. From our overnight stay in the steppe we jumped to Atyrau, former Guryev, the oil capital of Kazakhstan:

Where I managed to visit three times. I was robbed at the station here - I was so frightened by the Central Asian foreignness I saw for the first time that I trusted the first Russian gopnik with a banal “let me call!” In 2016, Atyrau, on the contrary, seemed no more alien and no more scary to me than some Tambov. Well, I collected the image of the city in three steps: I walked mainly in 2009 in the pathetic center, which at that time was still a reservation for expats; in 2016 I examined the colorful Stalinist Zhilgorodok closer to the outskirts, but in 2017 I discovered that the old district Guryev in Atyrau was well preserved:

And on the outskirts there are two natural museums of oil production equipment - in fact, these are just visual aids of two universities. I will write a couple of posts about Atyrau based on the results of all three visits. And by the way, if in 2009 the former Guryev impressed me with its sultryness, now it seems to me that this is a very damp and rainy city - on two of my three visits there was cold rain.

We left Kazakhstan on Victory Day, from which we encountered many stories. Who said that the St. George ribbon was banned in Kazakhstan?

But in the steppe we accidentally ended up at festive games, one of the elements of which was kokpar, or in our words goat wrestling - “steppe rugby”, where the players are on horses, and the carcass of a goat or ram is used as a ball. In fact, kokpar (among the Kyrgyz - kok-boru) is a war game in which nomads trained their horses for future battles.

Although according to the original plan we were going to leave through Astrakhan, the prospect of “Ganyushka’s road” did not please anyone. In the same way, I didn’t want to drive again along the tight, flat road through Saratov. But Olga found a solution here too, and late in the evening we watched the fireworks in Samara. Our hotel "Vremena" is in an old house on Molodogvardeyskaya Street, a hundred meters from the square over which there were fireworks, and in Moscow I have never seen fireworks so close.

It was not planned to stay in Samara, so I did not inform any of my acquaintances about my visit, and did not give an announcement. Olga and her fellow travelers preferred to sleep, and early in the morning I went for a ride on the metro, since the Samara metro was the last metro in Russia that I had not seen. It turned out to be interesting in its own way, and despite the distance from the center, it was not empty at all. But the intervals in Tashkent are 7-12 minutes...

Although in general, 9 years since my last visit clearly did not benefit Samara. If then I remembered it as a rich and sunny city, then today’s Samara seemed dilapidated, chaotic and unsettled to me.

The view of the city was taken from the ferry with which we crossed to Rozhdestveno and crossed the sodden winter road (yes, yes, there is a winter road!) Zhiguli Mountains, which turned out to be really quite mountains, similar either to the Crimea or to the Urals.

By the middle of the day we reached Tolyatti, and by evening we made our way through this huge city to its famous AvtoVAZ Technical Museum. I was here too in 2008 ( || and ). The museum has grown a little in 9 years, but has become quite dilapidated - the paint has peeled off somewhere, the wheels have blown out somewhere, and in size, contrary to memories, it turned out to be smaller than a museum similar in essence and origin in the Ural region. But the submarine still stands proudly in the middle of the steppe, aiming a torpedo at the automobile plant:

And already in the dark and in the rain, along the M5 highway, which was naturally clogged with freight trains from trucks, we literally jumped to Penza. My long-time readers know that Penza is a mystical city for me - it is the last regional center European Russia where I haven't been. And the wait for “when will Varandey visit there” lasted so long that even now I will consider that I have not visited Penza, but only passed in transit, especially since I have passed through it by train more than once before.
We spent the night at the excellent Voyage Hotel, stocked up on food at the nice Two Geese supermarket, and saw half of the center from the car windows. Next to the hotel there is a monastery, and a little further away I couldn’t believe my eyes when a small monument to Stalin flashed in one of the courtyards...

And May in Moscow with sleet on May 11th. Although even in Ryazan, even in Lukhovitsy it was warm and sometimes the sun showed through. And in this grayness it is easy to think that all these landscapes of Mangyshlak, sometimes as if they came out of surrealist paintings, are just a dream.

As for off-road travel, of course, in this format I turned out to be a completely random and practically useless person. The main feeling that remains with me from this method of travel is that jeeping is a very difficult format, and it demands a lot from the participants for its capabilities. On the one hand, an off-road traveler must have most of the hiking skills, from the ability to cook food over a fire or burner to the notorious “common sense.” But unlike a hiker, a jeeper must have many technical skills - starting with choosing and preparing the car correctly, continuing with the ability to drive it competently (" extreme sport- this is not higher mathematics for you, you need to think in it! ") and ending with the ability to repair things in the field or get out of least loss, when the nearest village is 30 kilometers on foot, and the nearest city is a day's journey. In addition, the jeeper should not be a poor person, because an SUV is a very expensive thing, and SUDDENLY running into tens of thousands of rubles is a common risk, which experience and skill, although they reduce, do not completely exclude. This method of travel is not for passengers for the sake of beauty - here you need to be either a skilled driver, mechanic, navigator, or an excellent companion, and for example, neither one nor the other is characteristic of me.

Although (purely theoretically) I would not mind repeating this experience.

Approximate order of posts:
- The path to Mangyshlak (2-3 posts).
- Mangyshlak and Adaevites in general (2-3 posts).
- Beket-Ata and Shopan-Ata.
- Boszhira.
- Senek, Zhanaozen, Karagiye depression.
- Aktau, former Shevchenko.
- Fort Shevchenko.
- Zhigilgan.
- Sultan-Epe and Shakpak-Ata.
- Canyons of Tyub-Karagan.
- Neighborhood of Shetpe.
- Samara metro.
- Zhiguli Mountains.
- Way home.

But I will start publishing all this no earlier than July-August.
And in the next month, before leaving for the North, we need to pay off last year’s debts: talk about the abundance that is so unlike these lands.

P.S.
And another special, albeit belated, thank you to the one who sent me 10 thousand rubles before the trip. Belated - because I simply didn’t want to mention how much money was in my wallet, being away from the Internet and in roaming.

In the west, the Tyub-Karagan peninsula juts out into the Caspian Sea; south of Mangyshlak is the Kazakh Gulf. The Mangistau region of Kazakhstan is located on the territory of the peninsula.

Nature

Necropolis Beket-Ata

Beket-ata underground mosque

Northern Aktau

Northern Aktau (white rocks 111 km of the road to Kalamkas and Karazhanbas) can be defined as “Cretaceous Mountains”. Everything around is snow-white. But not from the scorching sun. These mountains are composed of limestone, marl and white clay. The wind played a lot of pranks here, and a peculiar cuesta type of relief was formed. The tops of the low white mountains are cut through by ravines and hollows. They say that in the spring, when it rains, stormy streams run down them, sometimes demolishing roads and settlements, and among the bizarre stones you can find shark teeth and druses of semi-precious stones.

Shergala

Shergala (Sherkala) - lonely standing mountain, of unusual shape, about 170 kilometers from the city of Aktau, not far from Shetpe. If you look at it from one side, the mountain resembles a huge white yurt, but on the other hand, Shergala resembles a sleeping lion, resting its huge head on its paws. That’s why they named the mountain Shergala, which translated from Turkmen means “Lion Mountain” or “Lion Mountain”.

Around Shergaly there is a scattering of spherical boulders - nodules of various sizes. Many were cracked by the wind. Other small nodules lie broken. Inside is a trace of a shell or fish. The steppe at the foot of the mountain turns green and blooms. Not far from Shergaly there is a green oasis: a spring and a small river Akmysh.

Large settlements

Sailing regatta in the Caspian Sea

• Mangyshlak
• Eralievo
• Tauchik
• Bautino
• Akshukur
• Sai-otes

Industry

Previously, it was believed that the main wealth of the peninsula was oil (and drilling rigs can often be found in the steppe - mainly oil is extracted on the Buzachi Peninsula and the Novy Uzen region. In Soviet times, active searches for oil were carried out, now proven reserves are no less actively sold to foreigners concerns).

However, the rapid development of the peninsula began in the 1960s with the discovery of uranium ore deposits. The city of Shevchenko was created as a city for workers of the Caspian Mining and Metallurgical Combine. In 1972, there was a physical start-up, and in 1973, a power start-up of the world's first industrial fast neutron nuclear reactor - BN-350 (now shut down and being prepared for mothballing).

Also, under the USSR, giants of the chemical industry were created: ATZ, KhGMZ, ZPM. All these huge factories are located in an industrial zone. Now most of them are closed, some have been sold, some are trying to exist somehow.

see also

Links

Coordinates : 44° N. sh. 52° east d. /  44° N. sh. 52° east d.(G)(O)44 , 52

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See what "Mangyshlak" is in other dictionaries:

Pov on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. Height up to 556 m, in the southwestern part there is a plain with separate salt marsh depressions (Karagiye, 132 m below sea level, and Kaundy, 57 m). Oil and gas fields... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Pov on the northeast of the Caspian Sea; Kazakhstan. Among the etymologies, the most convincing is the one proposed by Mahmud Kashgari, 11th century, from the man qishlag area (winter hut) of the Man people; Kazakh, the tribal name man is confirmed by modern times. sources... ... Geographic Encyclopedia

. (Turkic “menk” is the name of one of the Nogai tribes.)

Nature

Large settlements

• (Shevchenko)
• Beyneu
• Uzen
• Mangyshlak
• Zhetybai
• Shetpe
• Eralievo
• Tauchik
• Bautino
• Akshukur

Story

Mangyshlak has rich history. Numerous ancient monuments were found. On Mangyshlak, the saints belong mainly to the Adai and. In Mangyshlak and served as the gateway to trade and economic relations between East and West. In ancient times, some were abandoned northern territories between and and came to Mangyshlak. Later they changed it in Mangyshlak. In some documents they are called . Adaevites have been living in these places for a long time. Legend says that the Adaevites descend from Aday, the son of Lakbybai. During the division of the inheritance, Adai was deprived. He got a horse and a saber. Then the horseman gathered the daredevils, who respected freedom and truth, and took them to the edge of the steppe, to Mangyshlak. And a new tribe of proud Adaevites formed there - warlike and united. All the offended found protection and shelter here. When the Adaevites quarreled among themselves (the rich and the poor), they became dependent on.

Healing waters of Mangyshlak

Mangyshlak contains many healing springs: chloride, and others. There are waters that not every specialist can distinguish from Matsesta and Feodosia. The peninsula has opened a rich range of medicinal springs, including thermal springs, with a temperature approaching the unique ones of Kamchatka.

Why are there many different springs in such an arid place as Mangyshlak? The reason for this is. They stand like gloomy cliffs in the center of the peninsula, stretching for hundreds of kilometers. If it weren’t for the Sengirkum sands, and also if it weren’t for the Bostankum and Tuyesu sands, hydrogeologists would never have found underground water reserves in Mangyshlak. These sands, it turns out, play the role of a kind of sponge that absorbs the little precipitation that falls on the peninsula. At the bottom of huge bowls filled with sand, the scouts found clean fresh water. But this water is still not enough. Therefore, desalination plants were built on the peninsula, supplying the city and region with fresh, technical and hot water.

Unique corners of the peninsula

Once upon a time the Mangyshlak Peninsula was called dead. “Desert, completely without any vegetation, sand and stone; Even if it’s a tree, there’s nothing…” wrote the Ukrainian poet. Climatic conditions the edges are rough. In the summer it is dried out by the heat, dust storms visit it, and the winters are cold and blizzardy. This is, of course, true, but Mangyshlak has gardens and meadows, mountains of extraordinary beauty, unearthly landscapes that fascinate, attract, and invite researchers and the simply curious.

blue bay

The Mangyshlak Peninsula is hundreds of kilometers of rocky Caspian coastline, countless kilometers, But besides this, it’s golden sandy beaches. One of these pearls is Blue Bay.

Zhigylgan

A giant basin, this is Zhigylgan - the Fallen Earth, the edge of which is almost a regular circle with a diameter of at least 10 kilometers. If it weren’t for the sea, approaching the Fallen Earth on one side, this place would look like a huge bowl filled with a pile of rocks reminiscent of the ruins of castles, circus arenas, fortress walls of a huge ruined city, and quarries. Most likely the reason is phenomena associated with dissolution natural waters; rocks (, and others).

Necropolis Sultan-epe

Sultan-epe is a saint, a protector of seafarers. According to legend, once upon a time, a father called his sons to him. Everyone immediately appeared before their father, only the youngest son did not answer the call immediately, but after a few days. The father was angry with his pet. Then Sultan-epe said that he had been to a distant place, where he helped fishermen in trouble, and showed his back, on which there were traces of the rope. Since then, he has always come to the aid of those in distress at sea. Necropolis Sultan-epe. Here, over the graves of the saints, there are long wooden poles, on which, according to legend, the saints climb to perform their miracles and help those asking for help. People come here and bring argali horns as gifts to the spirits or tie strips of fabric to a pole; some leave money that children or the needy can take, asking permission from the saint. This is why money is left, to be used for good.

Ancient necropolis Kenty-Baba

The ancient necropolis of Kenty-Baba, where memorial monuments date back centuries. On the territory of the necropolis - steppe. Prayer stone, points to the east, stones are laid in a protective circle. In this circle, the traveler will feel safe at any time of the year; night and day he is under the protection of the saint. We look at the drawings on the walls of the necropolis: here are plant patterns, and here is a triangle - one of the protective symbols.

Necropolis Beket-Ata

Necropolis Beket-Ata - spiritual, historical and architectural monument. Beket-Ata is known in the Muslim world as a predictor and to whom the book of Genesis was opened. According to legend, Beket-Ata lived in the second half of the century. He was born near the village of Kulsary, and at the age of 14 he came to bow to the ashes of the sage Shopan-Ata, whom he revered, and receive a blessing. On the third night, Shopan-Ata gave the young man the order to study. The young man went to a distant place, there, in, he comprehended science. Having reached the age of 40, he began to teach children to read and write. On his earthly path, Saint Beket-Ata traveled many roads until he again arrived in Mangystau. He healed people: the weak and suffering came to him, he gave them health and vitality. When deciding contentious issues he showed wisdom that brought both sides to agreement. In his sermons, Beket-Ata instructed believers to live in truth, be fair and do good.

Karagiye Depression

In the eastern part of the Mangyshlak plateau, approximately 50 km from the city, one of the deepest depressions in the world extends from northwest to southeast, with an elevation of −132 m below ocean level. Karagiye is a Turkic name, translated as “Black Mouth”. I remember the lines: “The plain spreads, gray as a camel’s felt.” Only green bushes of grass by the side of the road sometimes attract the eye. The steppe seemed to be lurking, frozen, and had not yet woken up.

Snakes of amazing beauty live here, and; vultures soar above, looking for prey; They vigilantly monitor everything that happens around them.

They say that a long time ago there existed on this place, and its name was Batyr - “Brave Warrior”. Then a depression formed. Its length is 40 km, width is 10 km. The formation of the depression is associated with the process of leaching of salty rocks, with subsidence and karst processes that took place on the coast.

Northern Aktau

Northern Aktau can be defined as “Cretaceous Mountains”. Everything around is snow-white. But not from the scorching sun. These mountains are composed of limestone, marl and white clay. The wind played a lot of pranks here, and a peculiar cuesta type of relief was formed. The tops of the low white mountains are cut through by ravines and hollows. They say that in the spring, when it rains, stormy streams run down them, sometimes demolishing roads and settlements, and among the bizarre stones you can find shark teeth and druses of semi-precious stones.

Caves, wander around the site of an ancient settlement, looking for shards, witnesses of past civilizations, then an hour will not be enough for you. There is a popular belief that if you make a wish before walking around Shergala, it will definitely come true. But the main thing is that around every bend, around a new turn, an amazing view opens up, so unusual that sometimes it seems that you have found yourself on an uninhabited planet. Around Shergaly there is a scattering of spherical boulders - nodules of various sizes. Many were cracked by the wind. Other small nodules lie broken. Inside is a trace of a shell or fish. The steppe at the foot of the mountain turns green and blooms. Not far from Shergaly green. This is a spring and a small river Akmysh. Here, in the shade of centuries-old trees, accompanied by the ringing trills of birds, it is pleasant to sit and listen to a story about the ancient settlement of Mangyshlak. It was built along the caravan route, which centuries ago was used for trade between Bukhara and the northern lands. This city was burned several centuries ago.