Atyrau [key], city, W Kazakhstan, on the Ural River and near the Caspian Sea. A port, rail center, and an industrial base of the Emba basin oil fields, it has refineries, petrochemical complexes, and varied manufactures. Fishing is also important. The city is linked by oil pipelines with Samara and Novorossiysk. Founded in 1645, it became a military outpost in 1647. Atyrau was a fishing center until the development of the region's petroleum industry in the 1930s.
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