The best museums Aralsk Et L’ouest

When you ring the museum doorbell, you feel as if you're entering a private home. But the curator, Madi Jasekenov, is always happy to have visitors, and will be invaluable to Russian-speaking visitors. The museum focuses on the history of the city of Aralsk, right up to its decline in the 1970s. The period photos are interesting, and allow you to compare them with the city's current appearance. Don't miss the section devoted to works by artists inspired by the melancholy landscapes left by the disappearance of the sea.

Like the Almaty museum, the regional museum houses a "Golden Man". These are the golden weapons and armour of a Sarmatian chief discovered in the Atyrau region in 1999. Other highlights include the reconstruction of a yurt and its traditional interior, and a fresco depicting the region in the distant past when it was criss-crossed by Silk Road caravans. For the rest, there's nothing really exciting to discover.

Cabs to Fort-Shevchenko leave from the Aktau bus station in the north of the city.

It's a 250 km round trip, but well worth it. The fort occupies the tip of the Mangyshlak peninsula. A small local museum houses many works by the great Ukrainian poet exiled to the shores of the Caspian. The surrounding scenery is perfect for a stroll, provided you ignore the oil companies that occupy part of the coastline. It's all very photogenic.

It's especially worth a visit to discover the results of the many archaeological excavations carried out around Aktau, particularly at the Mangistau site. Ask the museum staff for a few explanations, as the presentation of the exhibits is a little lacking. For the rest, we'll pass quickly over the collections of small everyday objects dating from the ^19th and ^20th centuries and the stuffed animals. Mineral enthusiasts will delight in the fragments of meteorites and semi-precious stones gleaned here and there from the steppe.