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Eric Lafforgue

Kazakhstan

The world’s ninth-biggest country is the most economically advanced of the ‘stans’, thanks to its abundant reserves of oil and most other valuable minerals. That money has transformed the capital Nur-Sultan, on the windswept northern steppe, into a 21st-century showpiece with a profusion of bold futuristic architecture. Travelers will find some fantastic restaurants and accommodation amongst the leafy avenues of Almaty too; its biggest city also boasts the chic ALZhiR Museum-Memorial Complex, glossy shopping centres and hedonistic nightlife. But it's beyond the cities that you'll find the greatest travel adventures, whether hiking in the high mountains and green valleys of the Tian Shan, searching for wildlife on the lake-dotted steppe, enjoying homespun hospitality in village guesthouses, or jolting across the western deserts to remote underground mosques.

Top attractions

These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Kazakhstan.

  • See

    National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan

    This huge blue-glass-and-white-marble museum covers the history and culture of Kazakhstan from ancient to modern times. Themed halls comprise interactive displays and artifact exhibits, ranging from a yurt in the Hall of Ethnography to a chronicle of the capital's modern history in the Hall of Astana. Don't miss the Golden Hall, which houses several thousand Bronze Age ornaments from the famed 'Golden Man' (a national symbol of Kazakhstan) – a 3rd- or 4th-century warrior whose gold-clad remains were uncovered in 1969. Visitors are welcomed into the grandiose entry hall by a giant golden eagle soaring over a vast map of the country. Highlights include the Hall of Ethnography, with its rich collection of objects related to Kazakhstan's nomadic culture. Also not to be missed are the Golden Hall's outstanding collections of Kazakh jewellery and ‘gold and gold-makings’. These include gold jewellery and replicas from the Scythian burial mounds at Berel and the Issyk burial mound (where the Golden Man was found), replicas of the Golden Man and the ‘second Golden Man’ from western Kazakhstan, a bejewelled replica of a horse from the Berel tomb, and real 4th-century-BC horse's innards pickled in formaldehyde! The People of Kazakhstan is an interesting look at the diverse ethnicities who call the country home, largely as a result of Stalin-era deportations, while 20th century history displays are a sobering look at Soviet-era repressions and WWII losses. The contemporary art section shows off Kazakh contributions in the 20th and 21st centuries.

  • See

    Yasaui Mausoleum

    This astoundingly beautiful, tiled mausoleum with a turquoise dome is home to Kozha Akhmed Yasaui. The main chamber is capped with an 18m-wide dome, above a vast, 2000kg, metal kazan (cauldron) for holy water, given by Timur, who had the tomb built in the 14th century. Yasaui’s tomb lies behind an ornate wooden door at the end of the main chamber: you can view it through grilles from corridors on either side. The right-hand corridor contains the tomb of Abylay Khan, leader of Kazakh resistance to the Zhungars in the 18th century. Off the main chamber's far left corner is the mausoleum’s carpeted mosque, with a beautifully tiled mihrab (Mecca-facing niche). Except in the mosque, visitors to the mausoleum don’t usually remove shoes though women normally wear headscarves (available at the entrance). The glorious blue, turquoise and white tiling on the outside of the building is the highlight for most and merits close inspection. Note the particularly lovely fluted rear dome, above Yasaui’s tomb chamber. Yasaui’s original small tomb was already a place of pilgrimage before Timur ordered a far grander mausoleum built here in the 1390s. Timur died before it was completed and the main facade was left unfinished – today it remains bare of the beautiful tilework that adorns the rest of the building, with scaffolding poles still protruding.

  • See

    Khan Shatyr

    Nur-Sultan's most extraordinary building (so far), the Khan Shatyr is a 150m-high, translucent, tentlike structure made of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), a heat-absorbing material that produces summer temperatures inside even when it’s -30°C outside. Touted as a 'lifestyle centre with world-class shopping', from outside it resembles nothing so much as a drunkenly leaning circus tent, while the multilevel interior contains a high-end shopping mall, food court, and various attractions. There's a drop tower, flume ride and 500m-long monorail (admission for all three 2000T) and, on the top level, the Sky Beach Club with a big swimming pool, sandy beach, palm trees and water slide, where those who can afford it can imagine they're on a tropical coast in the middle of the Eurasian steppe. Opened in 2010, the Khan Shatyr was designed by celebrated British architect Norman Foster and marks, for the moment, the western end of the main axis of new Nur-Sultan.

  • See

    Palace of Peace & Reconciliation

    This beautiful glass-and-steel pyramid was opened in 2006 as the home for the triennial Congress of World and Traditional Religions, hosted by Kazakhstan. The 30-minute tour (English-speaking guides available) shows you a 1350-seat opera hall, the 3rd-floor atrium where the congress was held, and the apex conference room with windows filled with stained-glass doves (by British artist Brian Clarke). Full of symmetry and symbolism, the pyramid is beautifully illuminated and a highlight of the city. Designed by Norman Foster, it's conceived as Nur-Sultan’s symbolic centre, and by 2030 (when the city is planned to have spread well beyond its current extents) it should be near the geographical centre too. There's an exhibition on the different peoples of Kazakhstan next to the soaring atrium, and an appealing wall garden near the pyramid's tip.

  • See

    KarLag Museum

    Housed in the old KarLag headquarters building, this poignant museum walks you through KarLag's role in the Soviet Gulag Archipelago. The repression of Kazakh 'kulaks', the post-1917-Revolution Red Terror, the man-made famine of 1931 and the suffering of the victims of the Gulag are all given a voice here. From Karaganda bus station, take Shakhtinsk-bound bus 121 (every 20 minutes), get off at the Vtoroy Shakht stop (150T), walk or take a shared taxi into Dolinka (1.5km). There are recreations of cells in the basement, including torture cells and punishment cells, while other rooms display dioramas and paintings, as well as memorabilia such as photos, heartbreaking letters from separated family members and some personal items of inmates. KarLag death rates reached 30% a year at times. Call ahead for an English-language tour (1000T) to complement the explanatory material in English. Ask at the museum about other Karlag-related sights in the village, including a hospital, a clinic, the officers' club and the Mamochkino children's cemetery.

  • See

    Kolsai Lakes National Park

    Located around 12km by paved (from 2018) road from Saty village, these three spruce-and-mountain-hemmed lakes are Alpine-esque beauty at its best and a Kazakhstan highlight. As you hike between the lakes, graze on wild strawberries and raspberries in summer and take frigid dips in the clear waters. The hiking trails between the lakes are steep in places and can get very muddy. You need your own wheels to reach the lakes, or go as part of a tour from Almaty. From 1km-long Nizhny (Lower) Kolsai lake (1800m) it's 6km up from the lower lake via a hike of about three hours to Sredny (Middle) Kolsai lake (2250m) – the biggest and most beautiful. From the middle lake to the smaller Verkhny (Upper) Kolsai lake at 2800m, where the forests give way to alpine grasslands, is about 4km and three hours’ walking; inquire at the entrance about permission to visit Verkhny lake, since it's part of the border zone with Kyrgyzstan.

  • See

    Aral Sea

    A trip to the slowly replenishing Aral Sea is the main – the only! – reason to come to Aral. Near its northern shore rise the sculpted rock formations of a magnificent canyon, in shades of ochre and yellow, reminiscent of Utah or Arizona. Four Soviet shipwrecks still lie on the seashore amidst dense growth of samphire, and the medicinal hot spring near a fishing village draws visitors from afar. Other attractions include the dam and overnighting in a fishing village. Getting out here from Aral is an adventure, entailing a long 4WD drive through endless steppe, punctuated by herds of grazing camels, and then along the dry sea bed.

  • See

    Kaiyndy Lake

    Created by a major earthquake in 1912, this deep, cerulean lake is fed by a glacial river and is notable for its forest of drowned spruces, the branches below the water so beautifully preserved by the cold water that local enthusiasts sometimes go diving here. There's a nice little beach for bathing, and a short trail through spruce forest to the end of the lake. You need a 4WD to drive here, 10km south of the village of Saty. Technically, Kaiyndy is part of the Kolsai Lakes National Park, but you have to pay the entrance fee here separately, and its location is in a completely separate valley.

  • See

    Central State Museum

    Almaty’s best museum takes you through Kazakhstan’s history from Bronze Age burials and nomadic culture to WWII sacrifices, telecommunications and the transfer of the capital to Nur-Sultan, with many beautiful artefacts on display. A large replica of the Golden Man (a national symbol of Kazakhstan; a 3rd- or 4th-century warrior whose gold-clad remains were uncovered in 1969) stands in the entrance hall. Highlights include hall 1 that deals with archaeological finds and early history up to Chinggis (Genghis) Khan, with balbals (totemlike stones bearing the carved faces of honoured warriors or chieftains, placed at sacred spots by nomadic early Turks) and models of some of Kazakhstan’s major monuments. Next to it is the ‘Hall of Gold’, an exhibit of outstanding ancient gold adornments, mainly from Scythian burials between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC, which requires a special 1300T ticket (includes a tour in Russian or Kazakh; English tours cost extra). The ethnographic display in hall 2, 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. Halls 3 and 4 on floor 4 deal with the 20th and 21st centuries, including exhibits on some of Kazakhstan’s many ethnic groups. It’s just a pity that the museum's signage in nonlocal languages is limited to ‘Don’t touch, please!’

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