Kazakhstan
This well laid-out museum incorporates the wooden house where the exiled writer lived from 1857 to 1859 with his wife and baby. The displays range over…
Must-see attractions in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
The Karaganda Ecological Museum, run by a dedicated, campaigning environmental NGO, is aimed at local schoolchildren and is the most imaginative museum in…
Kazakhstan
The most celebrated Burabay legend links Zhumbaktas, the Sphinx-like rock sticking out of the lake, with Okzhetpes, the striking 380m-tall rock pile…
Kazakhstan
Some 55km north of Taushlik, this site is 7km past the Shakpak-Ata turning on the Taushik–Fort Shevchenko road. It consists of a necropolis – tomb of holy…
Kazakhstan
Some 58km northeast of the oil town of Zhanaozen is this carpeted underground mosque and large necropolis where the oldest tombs, many of them beautifully…
Kazakhstan
The ruins of the formerly prosperous Silk Road town of Otrar are located near the town of Shauildir. In its heyday Otrar spread over nearly 10 times the…
Museum of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Nur-Sultan (Astana)
Inside the former presidential palace, a succession of lavish galleries display gifts to President Nazarbayev from foreign governments and grateful…
Atyrau
This regional museum is better than many, with well-laid-out displays on local fauna and prehistory, a particularly interesting section on Sarmat…
Kazakhstan
The pride and joy of what is one of Kazakhstan's best local museums is the domed rear building housing an unusually impressive collection of balbals …
Shymkent
Tauelsizdik sayabagy, accessed by footbridge from the tall, Mother Earth–topped Independence Monument, was inaugurated in 2011 for the 20th anniversary of…
Kazakhstan
Some 69km east of Almaty, the main road into the settlement of Esik/Issyk is lined with a dozen or so Saka burial mounds dating back to the early Iron Age…
Radiation Safety & Ecology Institute Museum
Kazakhstan
The museum in the Institute of Radiation Safety & Ecology includes a chilling model of the Experimental Field (where aircraft, buildings and live animals…
House-Museum of Yemelyan Pugachev
Kazakhstan
This log cabin was owned by the father of the Kazakh bride who married Cossack rebel Yemelyan Pugachev during his short stint in the city. One room shows…
Kazakhstan
Take the Taushlik–Shevchenko road from Taushlik for 55km, then follow the turnoff towards Sultan Epe for 7km, and you reach the three towerlike buildings…
Kazakhstan
One of Kazakhstan's biggest Gulag memorials, 35km south of Karaganda on the Almaty highway, Spassk was the site of a KarLag camp where foreign prisoners…
Historical-Cultural-Ethnographic Centre
Turkestan
This big, proud new museum has three floors of colourful exhibits on regional history, from prehistoric petroglyphs and household implements of the Kazakh…
Atyrau
From petroglyphs and standing stones representing prehistoric regional art to contemporary works by up-and-coming artists, this excellent museum is well…
Nur-Sultan (Astana)
The large, somewhat-untidy city park abuts the south side of the Ishim river. On its southern edge you'll find the Atameken, a 200m-long, walk-around…
History & Local Studies Museum
Kazakhstan
Displays at this regional museum run the gamut from prehistoric finds to some rare archaeological pieces, a collection of traditional Kazakh artefacts,…
Kazakhstan
A path from the back of the Polyana Abylay Khana clearing, 6km south of Burabay, leads up 947m Mt Kokshetau, the highest peak in Burabay National Nature…
Almaty
This dramatic socialist-realism memorial in Panfilov Park depicts soldiers from all 15 Soviet republics bursting out of a map of the USSR. An eternal…
Kazakhstan
This mausoleum is the tomb of an early mentor of Kozha Akhmed Yasaui, a religious mystic whose tomb should be visited before that of Yasaui in Turkestan,…
Kazakhstan
This spectacular canyon, 50m deep in places, is typically reached on horseback or on foot from Darbaza. One 24km-long route passes through forest where…
Kazakhstan
The collection here, one of the country's best, covers Kazakh, Russian and Western European art from the 16th century onwards, including a not-to-be…
Kazakhstan
Located in the western part of Altyn-Emel, near the Terekty Petroglyphs, this Iron Age site comprises 31 Scythian kurgans (ritual burial mounds), believed…
Kazakhstan
In an unmarked building that's part of Semey Medical University, this one-room museum exhibits the usual pickled organs you might expect medical students…
Kazakhstan
On the left, 600m past the end of the bridge that takes you south of the centre, across River Irtysh, is the sombre and impressive Stronger than Death…
Kazakhstan
Housed inside an early 20th century merchant's house, this engaging art gallery is home to a large collection of painstakingly restored 19th century…
Kazakhstan
This 2000 sq km park comprises dense spruce forest, Alpine meadows, glaciers and the northern slopes of the Zailiysky Alatau mountains. It is largely…
Mausoleum of Rabigha-Sultan Begum
Turkestan
This small building with a tiled turquoise dome is actually a replica of the 15th-century original (which was torn down in 1898). Rabigha-Sultan Begum was…
Nur-Sultan (Astana)
The 91m-high tall Kazak Yeli monument, topped by a golden eagle, is intended to symbolise the historic destiny of Kazakhstan's people. The figures at the…
Kazakhstan
Having reopened in time for the 2017 Expo, this museum is a good introduction if you're looking to visit the Otyrar-Tobe ruins. Highlights here include…
Kazakhstan
The good History Museum has a natural history section with stuffed regional wildlife, including a snow leopard and a giant maral deer, and human history…
Kazakhstan
A wooded park on Ybyraev, 700m east of Dostyk alany, is a reconstruction of this small but important medieval mausoleum. It houses cloth-covered…
Kazakhstan
Four fishing boats stand on pedestals beside Aral's former harbour, near the town centre, as a tribute to fallen heroes. The biggest of the four now forms…
Nur-Sultan (Astana)
The rather squat Palace of Independence is well worth a visit especially for its huge scale model of how Nur-Sultan is planned to look in 2030. It also…
Kazakhstan
In the northern part of Park Zhastar, you can check out a number of historic log cabins, furnished and decorated in period style: early twentieth century…
Shymkent
In Abay Park, two tall concrete pillars lean on each other above an eternal flame, and the alley is lined with plaques bearing the names of the more than…
Kazakhstan
A little out of the way, but worth seeking out if you're into your Soviet memorials, this large statue depicts Lenin rising upwards from a block of…
Kazakhstan
This dramatic memorial portrays a young Kazakh pilot, Nurken Abdirov – a Hero of the Soviet Union – defiantly gripping the steering of his plane as he…
