- Atyrau
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A·ty·rau or A·ti·rau (äʹtē-rou') Formerly Gu·ryev (go͝orʹyəf).
A city of western Kazakhstan at the mouth of the Ural River on the Caspian Sea. Founded in 1645 as a military outpost, it was a fishing port until the development of the region's petroleum resources in the 1930s. Population: 151,000.
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Kazak Atyraū , also spelled Aterau , formerly (until 1992) Guryev , also spelled Gurev, Guriev , or Gurjevcity, western Kazakhstan. It is a port on the Ural (Zhayyq) River near its mouth on the Caspian Sea. Founded as a fishing settlement in the mid-17th century by the fishing entrepreneur Mikhail Guryev, it soon became a fort on the Ural fortified line manned by the Ural Cossacks. Fishing and trade were the main economic activities until Soviet times. Now, in addition to a large fish cannery, there are an oil refinery, petrochemical plant, metalworking and construction-materials industries, a meat-packing plant, and ship-repair yards. A branch of the Kazakhstan Academy of Sciences studies the natural resources of the area, and the city has a teacher-training institute, a museum, and a theatre. Pop. (1995 est.) 146,900.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
