FORT-SHEVCHENKO

It's almost 250 km round trip to reach the site, but it's well worth it. The fort stands at the tip of the Mangystau peninsula. It was named in honor of Taras Shevchenko, a Ukrainian poet and painter and figure of national revival, who lived here in exile between 1850 and 1857. Having joined a secret society fighting against the serfdom imposed by the Tsar, he was initially imprisoned in St. Petersburg, before moving to the farthest reaches of the Empire, the fortress of Novopetroskoye, on this remote peninsula. During his exile, he was forbidden to write or paint, but Shevchenko managed to escape the vigilance of the Tsar's agents and was able to write numerous poems about his native land (preserved in the museum dedicated to him in Kiev) and immortalize some scenes of life in Kazakhstan on drawings or watercolors that he kept hidden, many of which are on display in the local museum dedicated to him. The museum, housed in the fortress commander's former quarters, focuses on the daily life of the artist and man of letters, who was never allowed to return to the country, except on one exceptional occasion to visit his family. Other rooms in the local museum focus on Kazakh traditions through a variety of handicrafts, tools and reconstructions of period scenes.

The scenery around the museum is ideal for a stroll, provided you ignore the oil companies that occupy part of the coastline.