KAZAKHSTAN - Aktau

Mangistau Peninsula

Aktau is the capital of the Region of Mangystau (or Mangestau or Mangystau) and its name means "white mountain" in Kazakh.  It is the second largest city in western Kazakhstan and the country's main seaport on the Caspian Sea. Aktau is a very young city built in soviet style. Stuck between the desert and the Caspian, hundreds of kilometres from anywhere else of any size, with all its water derived from desalination, Aktau is perhaps the most oddly situated of all the weirdly located places scattered across the former USSR.