Sights in Kazakhstan
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Panfilov Park
Located between Gogol and Qazybek Bi, this large and popular rectangle of greenery, first laid out in the 1870s, is focused on the candy-coloured Zenkov Cathedral, Almaty's nearest (albeit distant) rival to St Basil's Cathedral. Designed by AP Zenkov in 1904, the cathedral is one of Almaty's few surviving tsarist-era buildings (most of the others were destroyed in the 1911 earthquake). Although at first glance it doesn't look like it, the cathedral is built entirely of wood (including the nails).
Used as a museum and concert hall in the Soviet era, then boarded up, it was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1995 and has been restored as a functioning place of…
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St Nicholas Cathedral
The pale turquoise Nikolsky Sobor, with its gold onion domes, stands out west of the centre near the corner of Qabanbay Batyr and Baytursynuly. The cathedral was built in 1909 and later used as a stable for Bolshevik cavalry, before reopening about 1980. It's a terrifically atmospheric place, like a corner of old Russia, with icons, candles and restored frescoes inside and black-clad old supplicants outside.
For the best impression visit at festival times such as Orthodox Christmas Day (7 January) or Easter for the midnight services.
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Atyrau History Museum
The modernised Atyrau History Museum has some interesting displays including a replica of the local ‘Golden Man' – a 2nd-century-BC Sarmatian chief with gold-plated tunic, found in 1999 – and a room on recently excavated Saraychik, an old trading centre 55km north of Atyrau, where several khans of the Golden Horde were buried.
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Khan Shatyr
Along the main showpiece axis of the new capital, 2km-long bulvar Nurzhol, the most daring of all Astana's architectural fantasies, the Khan Shatyr, is going up behind KazMunayGaz. The nearest thing to a real Xanadu-style 'pleasure dome' that humanity has ever created, the Khan Shatyr will be an enormous, transparent, leaning, tentlike structure, 150m high, made of a special heat-absorbing material that will produce summer temperatures inside even when it's minus 30° outside.
Due to open in 2008, this is to be a mini-city with squares, streets, beaches, canals, shopping mall, gardens, cinemas, restaurants, pavement cafés, swimming and wave pools, beach volleyball, a…
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Central State Museum
The city's best museum stands 300m up Furmanov from Respublika alanghy. The Central State Museum takes you through Kazakhstan's history from bronze-age burial mounds to telecommunications and the transfer of the capital to Astana, with many beautiful artefacts. A large replica of the Golden Man stands in the entrance hall.
The downstairs rooms cover archaeological finds and early history up to Jenghiz Khan (with models of some of Kazakhstan's major monuments); the ethnographic display upstairs features a finely kitted-out yurt and some beautifully worked weaponry and horse and camel gear, plus musical instruments and exotic costumes going back to the 18th century. The…
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Köl-Say Lakes
These three pretty green lakes lie amid the steep forested foothills of the Küngey Alatau. The lakes are strung along the Köl-Say river at an altitude of around 2000m (6560ft). The camping and trout fishing are great. June and August are the best months to visit, but keep a close eye on the weather.
Travellers can arrange helicopter excursions to the lakes from Almaty or reach them overland from Saty; the lower lake is accessible by vehicle but you're better off hiring horses in Saty. It's possible to trek from the pastures of the middle lake over the 3200m (10500ft) Sary-Bulak pass to the Kyrgyzstan village of Balbay on the shore of Lake Issyk-Kul but you will need to…
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Arasan Baths
At the Arasan Baths you can choose from Russian (Russkaya), Finnish (Finskaya) and Turkish (Vostochnaya) baths, the latter with three different temperatures of heated stone platforms plus a plunge pool. Each part has men's and women's sections. Take along soap, a towel and some thongs (flip-flops) for walking around in. Go with a friend or two and you'll find it's an enjoyable and truly relaxing experience. If you don't have any bathing gear handy, there's a shop in the lobby.
Sellers with veniki (bunches of oak and birch leaves) wait outside, if you fancy stimulating your circulation with a good thrashing. Built in the early 1980s in a modernistic Soviet style, this is…
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Respublika Alanghy
This broad ceremonial square at the high southern end of Almaty, created in Soviet times, is a block uphill from Abay. The focal point is the attractive Monument to Independence. The stone column is surmounted with a replica of the Golden Man standing on a winged snow leopard, and is flanked at its base by fountains and two bas-relief walls depicting scenes from Kazakhstan's history.
Overlooking the square from the south is the neoclassical-style city government building and, at the southeast corner opposite the Central State Museum, a large official Presidential Residence (Furmanov 205). You can reach the square on bus No 2 or 63 or marshrutka Nos 526, 528 or 537 going…
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Dostoevsky Museum
The well laid-out Dostoevsky Museum is on a leafy street a block east of Abay ploshchad, built beside the wooden house where the exiled writer lived from 1857 to 1859 with his wife and baby. The museum displays Dostoevsky's life and works, covering his childhood in Moscow, residence in St Petersburg, five years in jail at Omsk, five years of enforced military service at Semey, and his creative life from 1860 to 1881. The rooms where he lived have been maintained in the style of his day, and the vast amount of images of Dostoevsky alone makes it worth a visit, even if you can't understand the mainly Russian text. Tours, in Russian or Kazakh, cost 150T.
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Bayterek monument
Many of the imposing and fanciful buildings along bulvar Nurzhol are still works in progress. But a line of central gardens and plazas leads inexorably to the 97m Bayterek monument, a white latticed tower crowned by a large golden orb. The Bayterek embodies a Kazakh legend in which the mythical bird Samruk lays a golden egg containing the secrets of human desires and happiness in a tall poplar tree, beyond human reach.
A lift glides visitors up to the inside of the golden egg, where you can ponder the symbolism, enjoy expansive views and place your hand in a print of President Nazarbaev's palm looking eastward to the giant new presidential palace.
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Kazakhstan Museum of Arts
The Kazakhstan Museum of Arts has the best art collection in the country, including works of artists banned during the Soviet period. There are also collections of Russian and Western European art. Particularly interesting are the room of modern Kazakh handicrafts and the large collection of paintings by Abylkhan Kasteev (1904-73), to whom the museum is dedicated.
Kasteev's clear portraits, landscapes and scenes of Soviet progress (railways, hydroelectricity, collective farming) obviously toed the party line but his technique is fabulous. Marshrutkas heading west on Satpaev, including No 520, will stop here.
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President's Culture Centre
The gleaming, blue-domed President's Culture Centre houses the high-quality main museum. The ground floor holds traditional Kazakh items - a brightly decked yurt, carpets, costumes, elaborate horse tackle. Upstairs you'll find the archaeological section, including models of some of the country's most important old buildings, and the Hall of Gold and Precious Stones, with the obligatory Golden Man replica.
The 3rd-floor covers Kazakhstan's history from the 14th century on. Explanatory material is in English, Kazakh and Russian. Photos are not allowed.
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Museum of Kazakh Musical Instruments
In a striking 1908 wooden building (also the work of cathedral architect Zenkov) at the east end of Panfilov Park is the Museum of Kazakh Musical Instruments, the city's most original museum. It has a fine collection of traditional Kazakh instruments - wooden harps and horns, bagpipes, the lutelike two-stringed dombra and the violalike qobyz. If you're there at the same time as a tour group you'll hear tapes of the instruments and see the attendant strum the dombra.
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Duman
Close by the Monument to the Dead of the Totalitarian Regime is Duman, Astana's noisy modern leisure centre, with a collection of unappealing cafés and bars, Rodeo, Gladiator and Sumo rides, a 3D cinema and - what makes it worth visiting - a state-of-the-art Oceanarium with 2500 marine creatures from around the globe and a 70m shark tunnel.
The UFO-shaped building opposite Duman is Astana's Circus.
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Kök-Töbe Cable Car
The smooth, gleaming and recently renovated Kök-Töbe Cable Car runs from beside the Palace of the Republic on Dostyq up to Kök-Töbe (Green Hill) on the city's southeast edge. The hill is crowned by a 372m-high telecommunications tower. Near the top station are a viewing platform, crafts stalls and a cafeteria doing good shashlyk. If you go during the day, the walk back down to Dostyq is a pleasant one.
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Abay Museum
The big, domed Abay Museum is dedicated to the 19th-century humanist poet Abay Kunanbaev. Along with displays about Abay's life, the museum has sections on the Alash Orda government and his literary successors, including Mukhtar Auezov (1897–1968), author of the epic Kazakh novel Abay Zholy (The Path of Abay). Free guided tours are available, but in Russian or Kazakh only.
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KazMunayGaz
About 1.5km past Duman on Kabanbay Batyr, the huge curved headquarters of the state energy company, KazMunayGaz, appears on the right (west), looking across a flyover and along the main showpiece axis of the new capital, 2km-long bulvar Nurzhol. The most daring of all Astana's architectural fantasies, the Khan Shatyr, is going up behind KazMunayGaz.
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Almatinsky Nature Reserve
This rugged area is an important habitat of the elusive snow leopard, among other rare species. It contains Mt Talgar, the highest peak in the Zailiysky Alatau at 4979m (16330ft), which takes experienced climbers four days to climb. You're supposed to have special permits to enter the reserve but, in practice, no-one seems to be checking.
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Gorky Park
Almaty's biggest recreational area, at the eastern end of Gogol, is still known as Gorky Park. It has boating lakes, funfair rides, an Aquapark, a rather sad zoo, and several cafés, shashlyk and beer stands. It's busiest on Sunday and holidays. Trolleybus Nos 1 and 12 and bus Nos 65, 94 and 166 run along Gogol to the entrance.
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Kozha Akhmed Yasaui Mausoleum
The revered Sufi teacher and Turkic mystical poet was born east of Shymkent in 1103, but lived most of his life in Turkistan until his death in about 1166. His tomb was already a place of pilgrimage when Timur constructed a grand mausoleum in the 1390s. Restoration work has been funded mainly by the Turkish government.
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History & Local Studies Museum
The History & Local Studies Museum has a small display on nuclear testing and the Nevada-Semipalatinsk Movement, material on regional history, and a collection of traditional Kazakh artefacts. Founded by Russian exiles in 1883, this claims to be the oldest museum in Kazakhstan.
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Akvapark
The central park on the south side of the river (reachable by a footbridge from the south end of Zheltoksan) is home to an antiquated funfair and the gleaming modern Akvapark, with a good indoor pool with slides, and outdoor slides and pools open from around May to September.
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Anet Baba Kishikuly Mosque
The Anet Baba Kishikuly Mosque, 400m beyond the Fine Arts Museum, was built by Tatar merchants in the 19th century in distinctly Russian-influenced style. It boasts twin minarets and a pillared interior with a big chandelier. Bus 35 runs along here.
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Islamic Centre
Detour a block south of the Transport & Communications Ministry to the new Islamic Centre with a beautiful four-minaret mosque. The mosque's interior is an exquisite multi-domed space with inscriptions and geometrical patterning in blue, green, gold and red.
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Hippodrome
Horse races and occasionally kökpar (see Buzkashi on), take place at the Hippodrome, several kilometres north of the centre. Get someone to call ahead and see what's on. Take a taxi, or bus No 8 northbound on Qonaev from Töle Bi.
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