City at the edge of two continents: Europe and Asia
Atyrau is the city, regional center of Atyrau region, Republic of Kazakhstan. The city is located in two parts of the world – Europe and Asia. Atyrau is the large center in oil and gas production and processing. History of Atyrau is unusual. The city was founded on the settlement land Ust-Yaitskiy Ostrog. The merchant from the town Yaroslavl Guriy Nazarov built this settlement at his expense in 1640 in the river mouth of Yaik when flowing into the Caspian Sea. Thus this settlement received its name.
In 1992, the city was renamed to Atyrau. From Kazakh, it means a “mouth”. Initially, the city was built on the shore, and at present, it steps back 25-30 km away from it. Oil refinery and oil equipment manufacturing plants were first built in this city. In addition, the largest fish canning plant appeared here. During its construction in 30s of the ХХ century, the city was built thick and fast. Cultural life of Atyrau region is rich and significant. There is the Drama Theatre named after M. Utemissov, Regional Philharmonic Hall named after N, Zhanturin, famous Orchestra of Folk Kazakh instruments names after D. Nurpeissova, Local History Museum, Museum of Applied and Decorative Arts.