№ 5 (49), 2011 - KazEnergy

№ 5 (49), 2011 - KazEnergy № 5 (49), 2011 - KazEnergy

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12.07.2015 Views

ART kazenergyMangyshlak:on the wavesof three seasby Andrey MikhailovBecause of its aridity Kazakhstanseems much larger than it actually is.But in fact the country is not a dwarf.By area, we are in the ninth place andare between Argentina and Sudan.Such extensiveness implies greatregional differences in different parts.They exist. Our flat north is absolutelydifferent from the mountainous south;the rainy east bears little resemblanceto the desiccated west. The same canbe said about the peoples, tribes,still loosely living in this boundlessspace. But one part of the country,even against this backdrop, can beconsidered the standard of otherness.Mangyshlak is its name…In Mangyshlak, other countries arose nextto me constantly. Unobtrusive parallels andperfectly clear analogy snatched out of memorynow and then things seen somewhereand sometime. But mostly I remember theholy Praying Allahabad, where the streamsof three sacred elements of Indian civilizationmerge into one: the Ganges, Yamunaand Sarasvati.104 № 5 (49), 2011

Here, in Mangyshlak, three powerful universalflows are joined. Three of the seas: Firstis the Caspian Sea, a huge pond with theobscure geographical status and the vaguegeological past.Second is the desert peninsula and adjacentUstyurt, which on closer inspection turnsout to be the sea, too, but punished for something,and sworn in some unthinkable distanttimes, dried, enchanted and petrified,turned inside out. No wonder then, in anyplace, at any height, in any depth one canfind shells, fish or mark or tooth-stone ofsome primitive sharks.And one more sea is a man-made one, which(like the invisible Sarasvati) is glistening inthe dark depths of the human history, butoccasionally bringing to the the surface mysteriouswreckage and exciting signs of of thepast. Someone has once given a faithful andreliable guard to this hidden sea. The de-KAZENERGY105

ART kazenergyMangyshlak:on the wavesof three seasby Andrey MikhailovBecause of its aridity Kazakhstanseems much larger than it actually is.But in fact the country is not a dwarf.By area, we are in the ninth place andare between Argentina and Sudan.Such extensiveness implies greatregional differences in different parts.They exist. Our flat north is absolutelydifferent from the mountainous south;the rainy east bears little resemblanceto the desiccated west. The same canbe said about the peoples, tribes,still loosely living in this boundlessspace. But one part of the country,even against this backdrop, can beconsidered the standard of otherness.Mangyshlak is its name…In Mangyshlak, other countries arose nextto me constantly. Unobtrusive parallels andperfectly clear analogy snatched out of memorynow and then things seen somewhereand sometime. But mostly I remember theholy Praying Allahabad, where the streamsof three sacred elements of Indian civilizationmerge into one: the Ganges, Yamunaand Sarasvati.104 № 5 (<strong>49</strong>), <strong>2011</strong>

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