The Caspian Sea comes as a genuine surprise after crossing the Central Asian desert. It is wide, calm, and a deep blue that seems improbable in this dry landscape. The coast near Krasnovodsk is almost entirely untouched by tourism — you can walk the shoreline in either direction without encountering another visitor. In the evening, the mountains behind the city cast long shadows over the port and the water takes on an orange tint.
The sea is landlocked and has no tides. Swimming is possible but water quality varies near the industrial port; the beaches a few kilometres north or south are cleaner. The Caspian sits between Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Iran — its legal status as a lake rather than a sea has meant its borders were disputed for decades after the Soviet collapse.