Silk Road Treasures: The Wild Beauty of Mangistau
Under the banner of "Silk Road Treasures", TCA's people -journalists, editors, authors - share their personal experiences of Central Asia and her people, and by listing their favorite places, literature, films, art, architecture and archaeological sites, alongside encounters and customs, provide pointers for readers wishing to visit the region. Aliya Haidar, Journalist Kazakhstan's Mangistau Peninsula (Mangyshlak) is far from fit for human habitation. Fresh water is scarce, the air is filled with dust raised by searing desert winds, huge waves roll over the turbulent Caspian Sea, and only camels can feed on its vegetation. Mangistau is a symbol of the triumph of nature and, simultaneously, a symbol of victorious industrialization. The balance between the two, however, is very fragile, as events on the peninsula have repeatedly confirmed. In 2000, the peninsula's landscape still retained its wild, natural beauty but just a decade later, it was a place plagued by social conflict. The remains of ancient nomadic sites and necropolises of Sufi missionaries illustrates that people have long been determined to tame and develop this remote and barren land but its explosive growth only occurred with the discovery of oil and uranium. In the 1960s, geologists settled in the desert. Within ten years, cities appeared and hundreds of enterprises were established, making Mangistau one of the gems in the Soviet Union's crown. Colossal desalination plants near the regional center of Aktau (former Shevchenko) resembling spaceships, are a legacy of the era of rapid development when the world's first industrial nuclear reactor on fast neutrons, the BN-350, was built on the peninsula. The reactor was shut down after independence in the late 1990s, but conservation is ongoing. Today, few people are allowed into the gloomy catacombs, to the heart of the reactor, but the memory of the power of the atom and the payback has remained. BN-350 is part of the Mangistau Atomic Energy Combine (MAEC), and the giant desalination plants now supply most of the peninsula with water from the Caspian Sea. But there is still insufficient capacity, and the presence of the endless row of desalination plants warns: "Beware, man. You will have to fight for every drop." Even in the regional center of Aktau, water cuts are not uncommon, and intensive farming is out of the question. In the bazaars of Mangistau, most of the products, especially fruit and vegetables, are imported and far more expensive than elsewhere in Kazakhstan where they grow in abundance. And although salaries in the oil industry are higher than the national average, locals pay triple the price for just about everything. Irresistibly attracted by the glitter of “black gold," the population in the peninsula continues to rise. Almost 800 thousand people currently live in the Mangistau region, making it the ninth most populous region in the country. The load on the peninsula's natural resources however, is now so disproportionate that it has become the cause of constant conflicts. But outside the cities, it is easy to forget the harsh reality of the industrial...
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