Environment of Azerbaijan
The Caspian Sea is the largest lake on Earth by both area and volume, with a surface area of 371,000 square kilometres (143,244 mi²) and a volume of 78,200 cubic kilometres (18,761 mi³). It is a landlocked endorheic body of water and lies between Asia and Europe. It has a maximum depth of about . It is called a sea because when the Romans discovered it they tasted the water and found it to be salty. It has a salinity of approximately 1.2 percent, about a third the salinity of sea water.
Soviet Central Asia
Kazakhstan's Mangystau Province has an area of 165,600 square kilometers and a population of 316,847. It is a major oil- and gas-producing region. The city of Aktau was built in Kazakhstan's Mangyshlak Peninsula as a small village to house the region's oil workers in 1961. Over the years a large influx of Russian and Ukrainian oil and chemical workers arrived. Engineers discovered large amounts of crude oil and petroleum in the area in the days of the Soviet Union, and when drilling commenced, much of the area was built up around the industry. Aktau is Kazakhstan's only seaport on the Caspian Sea.