Kazakhstan - Central Asia - page 90

8 Getting¨There¨&¨Away
The airport (p132), 23km north of the centre,
has an always-open air-ticket oice ( % 60
97 54; h 24hr). A useful train-ticket agency is
Dilizhans Aktau ( % 50 83 38; South Wing, Hotel
Aktau, mikrorayon 2; h 9am-8pm).
AIR
Air Astana lies daily to Almaty (from 28,800T),
Atyrau (from 12,800T), Astana (from 27,650T)
and to İstanbul (from 43,200T) twice weekly.
SCAT goes daily to Atyrau (from 11,200T), four or
ive times weekly to Astana (from 26,700T), Ak-
tobe (from 19,700T) and Uralsk (from 21,700T),
and once or twice weekly to Kyzylorda (from
26,700T), Shymkent (from 34,500T), Kiev (from
39,600T), Baku (from 26,400T), Tbilisi (from
25,600T), Yerevan (from 23,600T) and Astra-
khan (from 25,800T) and other southern Russian
cities. Azerbaijan Airlines lies to Baku (from
25,000T) daily - tickets from, among others,
Alban Avia ( % 42 74 00; Dom 59, mikrorayon 14;
h 9am-7pm). Transaero operates three weekly
lights to moscow (from 36,000T).
BOAT
A ferry to Baku (Azerbaijan) leaves irregularly
from the seaport in the southeast of town.
See p133 for more details.
MINIBUS & SHARED TAXI
From the bus station, in the north of town,
minibuses leave when full, until 7pm, to Shetpe
(580T, 2½ hours) and Zhanaozen (590T, 2½
hours). Shared taxis to Shetpe (1500T, two
hours) go from the street immediately north
of the bus station; shared taxis to Zhanaozen
(1500T, two hours) go from the street to the
south.
TRAIN
Aktau's train station, called mangyshlak or man-
gistau, is 12km east of the centre. It lies near the
end of a branch line of the Atyrau-Uzbekistan
line, so journeys to anywhere are l-o-n-g. Trains
leave daily for Aktobe (4430T, 29 hours), Atyrau
(3520T, 21 hours), Almaty (10,690T, 70 hours)
and Kungrad (Uzbekistan; platskartny 6350T, 25

hours), and every two days for Astana (8990T,
44 hours) and moscow ( platskartny 26,250, 71
hours). A newly-built line crossing the Kaza-
khstan-Turkmenistan border may make it pos-
sible to take a train to Ashgabat.

8 Getting¨Around
City buses cost 35T. The frequent bus 3 runs
north up Kazakhstan Respublikasy Preziden-
tininy dangyly then east to the bus station (the
second stop after the big gold-domed mosque),
and vice-versa. Bus 4 runs about every half-hour
(7am to 8pm) from the seaport to the centre; go-
ing out to the port you can catch it on the north
side of mikrorayon 3.
Taxis within town cost 200T to 300T. For the
train station expect to pay 1000T, for the airport
2000T, and the seaport 500T.

Around Aktau
The stony deserts of the Mangistau region
stretch 400km east from Aktau to the Uz-
bekistan border. This labyrinth of dramatic
canyons, weirdly eroded, multicoloured rock
outcrops, mysterious underground mosques
and ancient necropolises is only beginning
to be explored, even by archaeologists. A mi-
nor branch of the Silk Road once ran across
these wastes, and sacred sites, some with
strong Sufic associations, are located where
people buried their dead or where holy men
dwelt. The underground mosques may have
originated as cave hermitages for ascetics
who retreated to the deserts.
A few sites can be reached by public
transport of various sorts, but for most plac-
es you need a knowledgeable driver with a
4WD vehicle. Getting to these places across
the otherworldly deserscapes, with only the
occasional herd of camels or sheep for com-
pany, is part of the fun. Partner Tour (p95),
in Aktau, and Almaty-based Stantours (p68)
and Silk Road Adventures (p68), are expe-
rienced operators offering trips. Day trips

MANGISTAU¨NECROPOLISES¨
All of Kazakhtan is dotted with picturesque cemeteries or necropolises set outside vil-
lages and towns, and Mangitau has a notable concentration of them: locals boat the
igure 362. Many of these date back to nomadic times, when tribes would bury their dead
at special sites. Fascinating carvings adorn many of the older tone monuments - the
commonet forms are the kulpytas, a carved tone column; the koitas, a tylised ram;
the koshkar-ta s, a more realitic ram; and the sarcophaguslike sandyk-tas . One of the
mot intereting necropolises is Koshkar¨Ata , at Akshukur, beside the main road 15km
north of Aktau. Its skyline of miniature domes and towers resembles some fairytale city,
and jut inside the entrance is a ine old koshkar-tas .