Things to see and do Aktau

If your steps took you to Aktau in November 2017, you may have witnessed the opening of the "time capsule": a letter written by the city's inhabitants and builders in 1967. Buried in a cylinder, hidden in Mikrorayon 2, it contained certain letters and messages written at the time for the attention of future generations. Opened for the ^50th anniversary of the city's foundation in 2017, its contents are on display in the regional museum, and a new capsule has been hidden... next opening in 2067!

The monument to the heroes and victims of the Great Patriotic War takes the form of a circular plaza, decorated on the ground with geometric interlacing and surrounding a second circle on whose edges stand five concrete blocks, representing the five years of war and surrounding an eternal flame. The upper tips of the blocks are inclined, evoking the silhouette of a yurt. A promenade joins the waterfront where a Mig-21 appears to take off facing the Caspian Sea.

Head down to the seafront from the end of the promenade at the Mig memorial. The beaches had their dark days after independence, but have now mostly been cleaned up and redeveloped for leisure. The beaches in the town center are not the most beautiful, but they are there to offer a pleasant setting for a stroll. You'll find more beautiful scenery if you follow the seafront southwards and walk a little beyond mikrorayon 1. Here, the beaches are less crowded and wilder than those in the town center.

There's nothing of note in Mikrorayon 10 from a cultural or architectural point of view, but this district to the east of the regional museum is worth a detour for the gigantic portraits of the "fathers of the nation" that adorn the sides of the buildings. These include Abilay Khan (block no. 19), Tole Bi (block no. 20) and Aytebek Bi (block no. 22). One of the latest portraits is of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, painted before he left office.

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.

The Ustyurt Plateau is a barren strip of land, hostile to the Siberian winds, stretching between the Aral Sea and the Caspian Sea, and covering part of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. It's a completely uninhabited area, with only a few villages surviving, once supplied by Moscow, and now surviving, populated by the last inhabitants who didn't have the opportunity to move elsewhere. The heat is overwhelming in summer and the cold is bitter in winter, especially when the wind blows. In short, it's not exactly a welcoming land, but it does offer some breathtaking scenery, particularly around the shores of the ancient Aral Sea. To explore the Ustyurt plateau, you'll need to hire a 4x4 vehicle. The best starting point is from Aktau, where a number of agencies and hotels can organize excursions. Make sure the driver knows the area well, as there are no roads, only tracks. Ask to push on to Bozjira, one of the country's most remote sites, far from any human activity. For several hundred kilometers, the snow-white chalky stones have taken on hallucinatory shapes, carved by rain and wind, and have become one of the Kazakh mouflon's most prized shelters. You may even be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of one. A true immersion in one of the most ghostly and lunar landscapes imaginable.