Alma-Ata or Almaty is the largest city and the southern capital of Kazakhstan. It is located at the foot of the Zailiyskiy Alatau and combines architecture from different eras with an active cultural life and a multinational environment. It is one of those cities that can rightfully be said to be at the junction of East and West, and nowhere else does the West penetrate so far to the East.
The city of Alma-Ata (or, in the Kazakh version, Almaty) is located
in the southeast of Kazakhstan, right next to the Kyrgyz border, which
here runs along the Zailiyskiy Alatau ridge - a massif of harsh,
snow-capped northern spurs of the Tien Shan Mountains. Rivers flowing
into Lake Balkhash descend from the mountains, which is why this area
has been called Semirechye since ancient times. The flat Kazakh steppe
becomes relief here and blossoms with many oases, one of which is the
city itself. Wild apple trees used to grow in the vicinity of Alma-Ata.
The city is still surrounded by many apple orchards; the most famous
local variety is the Almaty Aport.
The mountains start right
outside the city, but the city itself is practically on a plain and only
slowly rises towards the mountains, reaching the entrances to the gorges
of the local rivers - Bolshaya and Malaya Almatinka and the Vesnovka
(Esentai) River - but not spreading into them. The height of the center
of Almaty is about 800 m above sea level. The mountains are really
close: just 20-25 minutes by city bus, and you will find yourself almost
a thousand meters higher at the high-mountain skating rink Medeo
(Medeu), and another 20 minutes by ski lift - and in front of you is the
ski resort of Chimbulak (Shymbulak). Not many cities with a population
of over a million are so close to the mountains and stand on the border
of such different natural zones. The location of Almaty is one of the
main components of its atmosphere and attractiveness.
Geographers would say that Almaty has a pronounced altitudinal
zonation. The city gradually rises up the mountain, and its appearance
changes greatly when moving from north to south, i.e. from bottom to
top. Almaty can be roughly divided into three parts. The lower part - to
the north of Raimbek Avenue - mainly consists of an endless private
sector and separate blocks of uninteresting Soviet buildings. Here are
the Almaty-1 railway station, the airport and the Almaty Stanitsa area.
The middle part, or the center, stretches from Raimbek Avenue to
Republic Square. It covers the entire territory of the former city of
Verny and includes almost all of the pre-revolutionary architectural
monuments of Almaty, as well as the lion's share of good Soviet
architecture. Finally, the upper part is located to the south of
Republic Square. This is the most fashionable, but not very interesting
area of the city, where modern buildings predominate. They say about
Alma-Ata that the upper classes live at the top and the lower classes at
the bottom, and here it is as true as it can be: if the center and
everything above it looks like a European city, then the lower part is
much more reminiscent of Central Asia.
According to a tradition
that probably goes back to the Cossack villages, most of the city is
divided, as if by a ruler, into rectangular blocks. Because of this, in
Alma-Ata it is customary to indicate addresses by the intersection of
two streets. The streets along the Zailiysky Alatau are more or less
horizontal, and the streets across them have a strong slope, along which
there are often irrigation ditches with running water. Some streets have
three lanes, but most of them are narrow, which creates a certain
coziness and, at the same time, leads to traffic jams. The only major
highway is Al-Farabi Avenue, which goes around the city from the south
and turns into a bypass road.
After Kazakhstan gained
independence, most of the streets in Almaty were renamed. However,
unlike many large Russian cities, the renaming did not follow the line
of returning the streets to their historical names (which often simply
do not exist, since the streets were laid out relatively recently), but
along the line of simple de-Sovietization: names and titles popular in
the USSR were replaced with names and titles relevant to Kazakh history
and culture. At the same time, names such as "Cosmonaut Avenue" or
"Astronomical Street" were also replaced, but some toponymic units from
the Soviet period, such as Timiryazev, Gogol, or Rubinstein Streets,
strangely survived. All this led to the fact that even Almaty residents
themselves sometimes get confused in the modern toponymy of the city,
preferring to name the streets in the old, familiar way. Therefore, if
you ask a resident of Almaty for an address and hear in response the
Russian name of a street, do not be lazy to clarify whether this is what
it is called at the moment.
You should come to Almaty for at
least a couple of days: the city is not small, the sights are scattered
over a large territory, and it is worth going to the mountains (see
Environs). Also, Almaty is almost the only large city in the territory
of Semirechye, so you may spend several days here, making one-day trips,
and in between exploring the city.
Since 2017, an information
center for tourists has been operating. At the moment, there are 8
information points (Almaty Airport, Maylina Street, 2, Abay Avenue 15/1,
Abay Avenue, 44, Tole Bi Street, 55, Abylay Khan Avenue, 1,
Stantsionnaya Street, 1, Nazarbayev Avenue, 139). They provide
information support, if desired, they organize excursions. There are
also souvenir shops at the points.
Almaty is one of those places where it is not so much the individual objects that are interesting, but the general atmosphere and cultural life. The city has a special charm due to the magnificent view of the mountains, which opens up from almost any point. It is a garden city, immersed in greenery from early spring, when the fruit trees bloom, until late autumn, when the last roses fade. Shady boulevards, an extensive network of babbling irrigation ditches, small cozy squares and numerous fountains distinguish Almaty from any other city in Kazakhstan. Boulevards and roadsides of the central streets are full of oaks - an unusual tree for urban landscaping: a characteristic feature of Almaty autumn is not only falling leaves, but also acorns.
The center of Almaty (and it is quite large, a square with a side of
3 km) can hardly be called historical. The development of the city of
Verny has practically not been preserved in it, modern architecture is
ordinary, but dozens of interesting historical buildings are scattered
among this massif. Almost all pre-revolutionary buildings in the city
are wooden, since the stone ones did not justify themselves, unable to
withstand the earthquake of 1887. From then until the advent of Soviet
power, they built mainly from wood (durable Tien Shan spruce), which
ensured greater seismic resistance.
The architecture of Soviet
Alma-Ata is extraordinary: on the one hand, it has much in common with
the Soviet appearance of Tashkent and Bishkek, but on the other hand, it
is noticeably different from the architecture of Soviet Russia. Kazakh
Stalinism has a clear national flavor: double lancet windows, stucco
with national ornaments, and the semicircular arches traditional for
Stalinism turn into Central Asian peshtak portals. The best examples of
this style are the complex of the Academy of Sciences and the
residential building on Zhibek Zholy Street, 60.
No less
interesting is the later period, the second half of the 1970s - early
1980s. Khrushchev's minimalism is being replaced by modernism, and in
Alma-Ata this style was created in collaboration between Moscow and
local architects. Typical panel "Brezhnevkas" receive protection from
the sun's rays in the form of ornamental cladding; multi-volume "twin
towers" are being built on the local "Arbat", and the most remarkable
example, not inferior to the best examples of this style in other cities
of the USSR, is the Palace of Schoolchildren.
1 Ascension
Cathedral. The pearl of Russian architecture in the heart of Alma-Ata.
The first cathedral in the city of Verny was built back in 1875, but in
1887 it was destroyed by an earthquake. The new cathedral was erected in
1904-1907. A key role in the construction was played by Andrei Zenkov,
who lived in the city - an engineer by education, not an architect. He
came up with a flexible wooden structure that allowed the support beams
to move relative to each other, and surrounded the foundation with an
underground gallery that dampened the faults and cracks that appeared
during the earthquake. The cathedral survived the next earthquake in
1910 (the strongest to date in Kazakhstan) safely, although it was still
standing in scaffolding. The exterior design of the cathedral is the
result of the joint efforts of the Moscow architect Konstantin
Borisoglebsky and the same Zenkov: they created a canonical Russian
temple, decorated in an oriental style - brightly, motley and
multi-colored, but elegantly and harmoniously. In 1927, the cathedral
was closed, and for a long time it housed a local history museum, and
then a concert hall. In 1995, the cathedral was returned to believers.
In the early 2000s, the cathedral was restored: the iconostasis was
recreated, wall painting began, so the interior is mostly modern. The
unusual structure for Russian churches with partitions and benches in
front of the pulpit has been preserved. To the left of the entrance, do
not miss the unusual iconographic plot: "the Cathedral of the Holy
Martyrs of China" in memory of the tragic events of 1900 in Beijing.
The cathedral is located in a park, on the southern border of which (28
Kazybek Bi Street) is the former building of a boys' gymnasium
(1892-1895), a project by another Vernoye architect, Pavel Gurde, who
had French roots and was less fond of stylizations.
2 Park named
after 28 Panfilov Guardsmen. The park surrounding the cathedral is named
after the Panfilov heroes, whose division was formed in Bishkek and
Alma-Ata. Initially, there was a city cemetery here (several
pre-revolutionary graves have survived to this day), but after the
revolution, the park acquired a stable memorial connotation: at first,
revolutionaries who died in the Civil War were buried there, and after
the Great Patriotic War, in 1975, a full-fledged memorial was erected
with an Eternal Flame, soldiers eager to fight, and the inscription
“Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat, Moscow is behind
us!”, which looks symbolic 4,000 km from Moscow. Upon closer inspection,
you will find three objects at once: from left to right - the high
relief "Oath" (a monument to revolutionaries), the sculpture "Feat" (to
Panfilov's men) and the composition "Trumpeting Glory" (apparently, to
those who remained). All this is located on the eastern edge of the
park, where there is also a large and rather gloomy officers' house
(1970) and a beautiful wooden house with a hipped turret, formerly an
officers' club (1908, also by Zenkov), and now a museum of musical
instruments. In addition to all this, the park has a monument to Ivan
Panfilov, a monument to internationalist soldiers and many more
monuments to heroes in the form of simple granite pedestals. Despite the
official memorial status of the park, on weekdays it is a quiet and nice
place where it is pleasant to walk or sit on a bench.
3 Vernenskoye
School, Gogolya St., 37 (next to the park). The two-story wooden
building gives a good idea of what the best houses in Verny looked
like at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. They were built from
Tien Shan spruce, the characteristic texture of which gives the building
and its individual elements (cornice, architraves) a slender and weighty
appearance. The building is remarkable from any angle and is notable,
among other things, for the fact that it is completely unlike the
Siberian wooden architecture of its time (see Tomsk). It was built
around 1890 according to the design of Pavel Gurde. The Verny Orphanage
(1892), now a museum in Almaty, is similarly decorated, but it is more
monumental and at the same time subtly resembles a Buddhist temple.
4 Gabdulvaliev House, Zhibek Zholy St., 39 / st. Valikhanov, 45.
The gallery of the best wooden buildings in the city of Verny is closed
by a building known to old-timers by the name of the fabric store
"Kyzyl-Tan" that was located there in Soviet times. At first, it was a
mansion built for the Tatar merchant Ishak Gabdulvaliev, who rose to
fame in the Turkestan trade. With its motley, intricate carvings and
eclecticism, the building strongly resembles the Ascension Cathedral,
which is why it is often attributed to Andrei Zenkov, but it seems that
the house was built 10 years earlier, in 1896, and it was designed by
the same Pavel Gurde, who allowed himself some experiments. In 2009, the
building was badly damaged by fire, but was repaired, retained its
historical appearance and still personifies the bright and colorful side
of old Almaty architecture.
5 St. Nicholas Cathedral, st. Baitursynov,
56/5 (along Kabanbai Batyr Street to the end). On the western edge of
the center stands the second (of three) old churches preserved in
Alma-Ata, built for the village of Kuchugury, which was located here and
later became part of the city. The architecture is simpler than that of
the Resurrection Cathedral, but also unusual: a non-standard,
square-section bell tower is attached to the classic five-domed Russian
church. The temple has numerous carved runners along the cornices and
windows in common with other Almaty buildings of that time. During the
Soviet era, the church was closed for only 10 years, after the war it
was in operation all the time. The interior is modern and brighter
compared to the Resurrection Cathedral.
Next to the cathedral is the
Nikolsky Bazaar and a park with a monument to the liquidators of the
Chernobyl accident. The list of pre-revolutionary buildings is not
exhaustive; there are about two dozen of them in Alma-Ata, including a
couple of house museums.
After the revolution, stone construction
resumed in the city, which was further facilitated by the transfer of
the capital of the Kazakh ASSR to Alma-Ata, which required new spacious
buildings. If pre-revolutionary houses are mainly located to the east of
Nazarbayev Avenue, then Soviet ones are more common to the west. Their
density is also low, and the most interesting can be seen if you walk
between the Almaly and Zhibek Zholy metro stations.
6. House of
Communications, Bogenbay Batyr Street, 134. In the early 1930s, a whole
complex of government buildings in the constructivist style was erected
in Alma-Ata, the new capital of the Kazakh ASSR. The best-preserved
building is the House of Communications (1931-1934) with its ribbon
windows and semicircular projections along the edges. It was preceded by
the House of the Council of People's Commissars (1927-1931), which now
stands nearby on the same Bogenbay Batyr Street. It was designed by the
constructivist theorist Moisei Ginzburg himself and looked so
revolutionary that it is included (at the design level) in the top
hundred monuments of the Soviet avant-garde. Unfortunately, the building
was not built exactly as the architect envisioned, and then it was
completely rebuilt, so now only the not very interesting western part
reminds us of constructivism. Inside there is now an academy of arts,
which has arranged a cozy park with funny sculptures. Also near the
academy you can find two modern monuments: to the People's Commissar of
Education Temirbek Zhurgenov, repressed in 1938, and to the founder of
the academy, theater director Askar Tokpanov.
7 Turksib Administration,
Bogenbai Batyr Street, 132. Another monument of constructivism, and also
the work of Moscow architect Moisei Ginzburg. The building in the shape
of the letter G was intended for the administration of the railway
(Turksib), which came to Alma-Ata in 1930. It is curious that Ginzburg
did this project at the same time as the Moscow house of the People's
Commissariat of Finance - a communal house, one of the main monuments of
the Soviet avant-garde - but inside there were not residential units,
but "offices". At first, the Almaty project was very reminiscent of the
Moscow one with its long (at that time, simply enormous) façade and
ribbon windows, but the façade was later rebuilt, making the windows of
a normal size. Now the building is easily identified as pre-war,
although constructivism is visible in it only from the yard. On the
other side of Nazarbayev Avenue are the housing estate buildings (Nos.
118, 120) built in 1934-1935 with attractive façade and arch design, the
first large-scale housing construction project in the city.
8 Government House, Astana Square (Old Square). The monumental building
of 1951-1957, where the government of Kazakhstan was located before
moving to Astana, is strikingly different from everything that was built
in Alma-Ata after the war: a severe gray facade with powerful columns,
no national style or decorations (however, the arches resemble medieval
mausoleums in their shape). The project began before the war, this is a
rather rare example of the Art Deco style in Soviet architecture. Behind
this building (in the park on the northern side) is the so-called "Alley
of Outstanding Figures", also known as the Alley of Busts - a collection
of monuments to figures who were somehow involved in the establishment
of Soviet power in Semirechye. The alley, curiously enough, was formed
in 1987, at the end of the USSR and after the December 1986 events in
Kazakhstan. And in the well-kept park on the other side of Tole Bi
Street, which crosses the square, there is an interesting monument to
Aliya Moldagulova and Manshuk Mametova, heroines of the Great Patriotic
War, erected on the site of the monument to Lenin in 1997 (it was
possible not only to pay tribute to the fallen, but also to show an
example of unobtrusive de-Sovietization of the urban space). In the park
there are interesting benches with a musical theme, and in its eastern
part, at the exit to Panfilov Street, you can find a pond with fountains
and a bridge of love, which was created, apparently, especially for
newlyweds, since the lush twisted fence of the bridge is densely hung
with appropriate locks.
9 Building of the KazPivo Trust, st.
Kabanbay Batyr, 94. A nice two-story building (1936) was built for the
KazPivo trust, which was in charge of the alcohol industry of the Kazakh
ASSR. However, there is information that the building was intended for
the People's Commissariat of the Food Industry, and older Almaty
residents claim that a cafe was originally supposed to be located here.
The project is unusual in that the portico typical of Stalinism is
located here at an angle and therefore looks somehow very simple,
without unnecessary pathos. In the late Soviet years, there really was a
cafe here for a long time, and later - a book museum, now closed due to
the terrible condition of its books. Another interesting detail is the
bas-reliefs depicting the Kazakh people on the path to socialism and
with a large number of beer kegs: the inscription TKP on them denotes
that very trust. The ordinary Kazakh Stalinism can be seen in the same
area - on Nazarbayev Avenue, Abylai Khan Avenue and Zheltoksan Street.
Residential buildings are usually low, 4-5 stories (due to seismic
resistance requirements), but colorful thanks to carved decorations and
national ornaments that soften the severity of neoclassicism: these are
some of the most attractive buildings of their time. Among the unusual
Soviet buildings in the city center, do not miss the monumental opera
house (1939-1941) and the elegant administrative building of
Kazpotrebsoyuz (corner of Panfilov and Tole bi streets) with a high
turret.
In the area of Abay Avenue, the center of Almaty changes
dramatically: the streets become wider, the climbs steeper, and a couple
of blocks above the avenue the city begins to resemble the
non-ceremonial quarters of the new Astana, or even a residential area of
a prosperous Russian city with a population of over a million.
Landmarks are grouped around Abay Avenue, most of them from the Soviet
and post-Soviet times. The largest (in every sense) pre-revolutionary
landmark of Abay Avenue itself is the Main (Main) Ditch, which stretches
along the odd-numbered side along the entire avenue and in places widens
into a small river. The ditch is paved with stone, with numerous bridges
thrown across it; since mid-2018, reconstruction has begun, promising to
turn the ditch into a full-fledged public space with fountains, an
embankment, and recreation areas.
10 Golovizin House, Prospect
Nazarbayev, 162 (corner of Kurmangazy Street). One of the few
pre-revolutionary houses in this part of the center is strikingly
different from everything you will see in the area of the Resurrection
Cathedral. In 1908, a one-story mansion in the eclectic style was built
for the merchant Golovizin, the owner of the Vernoye shoe workshops.
Decorated with a corner tower, columns and stucco, the building follows
the latest trends in the capital's fashion and looks, perhaps, a little
alien in Alma-Ata.
11 Baum House, Amangeldy Street, 68. In 1880,
Vernoye forester Eduard Baum ordered the construction of a mansion from
P. Zenkov - the result is a log house in the Russian style, unlike
anything else in Vernoye or later Alma-Ata.
12 Palace of
Schoolchildren, Prospekt Dostyk, 124 (corner of Satpayev Street). One of
the most interesting Almaty stylizations is the Palace of Pioneers,
built in 1983. By that time, the architects had already managed to
combine traditional ornaments and other national motifs with many
architectural styles, from Stalinist to functional and neo-Russian. The
Palace of Schoolchildren is interesting precisely because it has a
distinctly “local” appearance even without such tricks, due to only one
wavy dome, reminiscent of medieval mausoleums. Everything else, from the
curved shape to the sudden observatory tower, is subordinated to the
logic of the avant-garde, and together it is a most interesting monument
of Soviet architecture.
13 Building of the Academy of Sciences,
ul. Shevchenko, 28. The large building (1948-1953), which occupies an
entire block, is one of the last works by Alexey Shchusev and an
excellent example of how organically Stalinist architecture is combined
with national motifs: from the outside, the Academy resembles a railway
station, a mausoleum, and a temple of science. You can look at the
building for a long time: the carved portals and stylish lanterns
attract attention, and it will take 7-10 minutes to just walk around
this huge structure. The interiors are also luxurious, and you can look
at them under the pretext of visiting the museums located inside the
building.
In the park along the eastern side of the Academy
building (along Pushkin Street), you can find an intricate bust monument
to Pushkin (1999), as well as one of the most interesting Almaty
fountains - 14 "Eastern Calendar" with 12 figures of animals, a sun in
the center, and a mosaic-lined bottom of the pool. The fountain is also
unusual in that the animals are arranged according to the peculiarities
of the Kazakh calendar, so the place of the tiger is occupied by a
leopard, and the dragon is surprisingly replaced by a snail.
15 The building of the Agrarian University, 8 Abay Avenue. A more
striking version of the previous one is a building built in 1954 with
colored patterns on the facade, which in its style would ideally fit
into the Moscow VDNKh complex.
16 Monument to Abay, corner of
Dostyk and Abay Avenues. Every city should have a central square with a
monument. One such place in Almaty is the beginning of Abay Avenue,
marked by a monument, as you might guess, to Abay (Kunanbayev), a Kazakh
poet and educator of the second half of the 19th century. The monument
itself is interesting, perhaps, only because it was erected in 1960,
i.e. long before the wave of canonization that began after Kazakhstan
declared its independence. Behind Abai is the Palace of the Republic,
built in 1971, the city's main concert hall and a successful example of
late Soviet architecture, awarded the title of a cultural heritage site
of national significance. Nearby is the Soviet high-rise hotel
"Kazakhstan" (also interesting in architectural terms) and the lower
station of the cable car to Kok-Tyube.
17 Independence Monument,
Republic Square (New Square). Another contender for the title of central
square is the area in front of the Almaty Akimat building, i.e. the city
hall. The building itself and the square around it appeared in the early
1980s. The architects who worked on the project received a state prize,
although by modern standards their work looks gray and gloomy. In 1996,
at the height of national self-awareness, the already not very beautiful
square was supplemented with the Independence Monument - a tall, narrow
column crowned with an image of the Golden Man, the largest
archaeological find made on the territory of Kazakhstan. The statue of
an ancient warrior standing on a winged leopard is irreverently called
by locals "a man on a cat." The column is located between two Soviet
high-rise buildings, and it is from this angle that it is usually
photographed, presenting it as almost a symbol of Alma-Ata, although
there are more attractive places in the city. The most interesting thing
about the monument is not the column itself, but the cast-iron gratings
and bas-reliefs located at its foot, which allegorically represent the
history of Kazakhstan. Also popular with tourists is the bronze "book of
wishes" with a palm print, where you can put your hand and, accordingly,
make a wish; however, not everyone knows that this is the palm print of
President Nazarbayev.
There are several more interesting objects
near the Republic Square. Firstly, there is the monument “Dawn of
Freedom”, dedicated to the events of December 1986 and erected 20 years
later to the west of the square, right in the middle of the busy
intersection of Satpayev and Zheltoksan streets, so it is not very easy
to get close to it. The monument is a figure of a woman in a pathetic
pose against the background of red and white pieces of stone with jagged
edges, and therefore is popularly called “Jaws”. Behind the akimat, on
the corner of Timiryazev Street and Nazarbayev Avenue, there is a
presidential residence surrounded by its own park, built in the
mid-1990s, the territory of which, of course, is closed to mere mortals.
From afar, the residence resembles a sports palace. And on the other
side of the akimat, at the intersection of Timiryazev and Zheltoksan
streets, there is an unusually beautiful building of the television and
radio center (Zheltoksan, 185) with cornices in the form of stalactites
- perhaps the best example of the late Soviet Almaty "openwork style".
Access to it is not closed, you can come up and examine it closely. The
television center workers have nicknamed the building "the Capulet tomb"
and claim that a real ghost lives in it - perhaps because there used to
be a cemetery on this site.
The city of Verny was surrounded on all sides by Cossack villages,
which later became independent districts or separate cities of
Semirechye. Directly to the north of Verny were the Bolshaya and Malaya
villages, the border of which is easy to trace even now by the way the
plane trees disappear when moving from the center to the north, and the
multi-story buildings give way to the private sector. Walking along
broken sidewalks among blind and high fences is below average pleasure,
but it is still worth looking into the area of the former village: the
third old Orthodox cathedral in Alma-Ata is located here. In addition,
you will see what an ordinary, non-capital settlement in the south of
Kazakhstan looks like.
18 Central mosque. The old mosques of
Alma-Ata were destroyed during the Soviet era. After the proclamation of
independence of Kazakhstan, the capital urgently needed a mosque, and in
1993-1999 it was built as best they could. Although none of the new
Kazakh mosques can be called architectural masterpieces, this one is a
particularly serious case due to its plastic-like exterior finish and
the giant golden dome that replaced (after construction was completed)
the traditional blue and wavy one. The level of stylization is
noticeably lower than on many ceremonial buildings of the Soviet era.
However, all this did not prevent the mosque from being made one of the
national symbols and, for example, from minting commemorative coins with
its image, where, by the way, it looks much nicer than the original.
19 Vernenskaya Fortress, Tatibekova Street (bus stop "Mekhkombinat").
Between Bolshaya and Malaya Stanitsa there was the Vernenskaya Fortress,
consisting of earthen fortifications on the left bank of Malaya
Almatinka. There were never any serious battles in the fortress, and by
the beginning of the 20th century it was simply abandoned, but the
ramparts are still standing. Although the fortress is listed as a
cultural heritage site, its territory is mostly in private hands and is
heavily littered. You can get to the ramparts from Tatibekova Street
near the bus stop - the exact spot is marked by a small monument
informing about the revolutionary activities of Dmitry Furmanov. By the
way, the ramparts were built to last for centuries and have not yet
melted at all, so climbing them is not very easy, you can only do this
in dry weather. If you walk along the rampart forward, a view of the
mountains opens up.
20 Kazan Cathedral, Khaliulina Street, 45-a. The
Malaya Stanitsa Cathedral is sometimes called the oldest building in
Almaty, although little has survived from the period before the 1887
earthquake. In fact, the temple was rebuilt in 1898-1901 in the eclectic
style. Don't miss the carvings on the cornices; otherwise, the church is
little different from what was built in the same years in central
Russia.
1 The State Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Samal-1
microdistrict, building 44 (at the intersection of Nazarbayev Avenue and
Timiryazev Street) (Abay). 9:30 – 17:30 except Tue. 300/500 tenge for
locals/foreigners (main exhibition), +1300 tenge for visiting the gold
collection and +1000 tenge for each of the additional exhibitions. One
of the main museums of the country found itself at a crossroads: while
the capital was still in Alma-Ata, they managed to build a new building
for it (1985) in a beautiful park, but the interior and exhibition have
not been updated since then, developing a similar museum in Astana,
which now looks much more modern than the Almaty one. The collection
itself, however, is not bad and is divided into several parts. The
so-called "open exhibition" has four halls - archeology, ethnography,
the peoples of Kazakhstan (the history of the 20th century) and
independent Kazakhstan. Each of them is interesting in its own way: for
example, the ethnography hall shows such a rarity as tools from the 17th
century found in the steppe, and the 20th century hall is dedicated to
all exiled and resettled peoples. The hall of independent Kazakhstan is
distinguished by unimaginable pathos, but gives a good idea of the
ideology that dominates the country. You need at least an hour and a
half to view the main exhibition. If you have more time, there are
additional exhibitions for a separate fee. The main one is Scythian gold
(8th - 1st centuries BC), including one of the versions of the "Golden
Man" (there are several of them in Kazakhstan, and it is unknown which
is authentic). More exotic options are the anthropology museum (features
of races, their distribution across the planet) and the Nikolai Khludov
museum, which captured the life of Semirechye in the early 20th century
on its canvases. Both exhibits are interesting, although they are
disproportionately expensive compared to the main one.
2 A. Kasteyev
Fine Arts Museum, microdistrict Koktem 3, building 22/1 (Satpayev str.,
30-a) (Auezov Theater). 11:00 – 19:00 except Mon. 500 tenge. The main
art museum of Kazakhstan traces its history back to Soviet times, having
preserved everything that was then expected of a republican city - a
modest collection of Russian and Western European art, as well as a
funny selection of artists from "brotherly nations": in the halls you
can find Armenian or, for example, Latvian paintings. The basis of the
collection, on the contrary, is local, Kazakh painting, executed in the
genre of radical socialist realism: titles like "Milking Mares" or
"Collective Farm Dairy Farm" sound like music. If its notes do not touch
your soul, pay attention to the exposition of decorative and applied
art, where there are quite nice and unpretentious exhibits; carpets
predominate among them.
3 Museums of the Academy of Sciences,
st. Shevchenko, 28. Mon–Fri 9:00–18:00, lunch break: 13:00–14:00. 200
tenge for each exhibit. The huge building of the Academy of Sciences is
home to several small “departmental” museums. The entrance fee to them
is symbolic; what you will see for this money is also symbolic, but the
exhibits are a good addition to the Museum of Kazakhstan and give you
the opportunity to see the Academy of Sciences from the inside. Entrance
from Shevchenko Street, the guards will direct you to the ticket office
(through the lobby, on the left hand side). From there you can walk on
your own and carefully deviate from the route to see the interiors. ✦
Archaeological Museum. Two halls display models of medieval mausoleums
and gold jewelry from the 1st millennium BC, including horse harnesses
and one version of the Golden Man — judging by the lack of security,
these are not originals, but copies.
✦ Museum of Nature and
Paleontology. Dinosaur skeletons and stuffed animals. There are usually
a lot of children here, which is why it is noisy.
✦ Museum of Rare
Books. There is nothing special in the books from the 18th - 19th
centuries, it would seem — these are not medieval rarities, but for
Kazakhstan, which lived a nomadic life, written sources of that time are
unique. However, the museum is unlikely to be of interest to a
non-specialist.
✦ Museum of Kazakh Science.
4 Museum of
Musical Instruments, Zenkova St., 24 (Park named after 28 Panfilov
Guardsmen). 10:00–19:00 except Mon. 500 tenge. An unusual collection of
musical instruments — mostly Kazakh folk instruments, although there are
also exhibits collected from all over Asia. The highlight of the museum
is the opportunity to listen to the sounds of kobyzes and other domras,
but each visitor’s experience is different: for some, the caretakers
played just like that, while others were unable to hear anything even
with a guided tour. If you decide not to go inside, at least look at the
building from the outside: this is a former officers’ club (1908),
successfully stylized as a Russian tower.
5 Museum of Almaty ,
Kabanbai Batyr street, 132. 10:00 – 19:00 except Mon. 500 tenge. The new
and therefore highly multimedia, and sometimes even interactive museum
largely copies the Museum of Kazakhstan: Here, too, everything begins
with primitive times, the nomadic life of the Great Steppe continues,
and only then the exposition reaches the city of Verniy proper. This is
the most interesting part of the museum, behind it you will find less
fascinating halls like the history of Kazakh television or
mountaineering and the inevitable Independence Hall in such cases. The
museum building, formerly the Vernensky Orphanage, is one of the best
pre—revolutionary architectural monuments of Alma-Ata: a wooden house
built in 1892 by Pavel Gurde.
6 Railway Museum, ave. 127 Nazarbayeva
Street. The museum, which grew out of a private collection, does not
look at all like a departmental one. There are many historical exhibits,
especially from the time of the construction of Turksib, and excellent
models showing the development of rolling stock. There are also existing
models of the railway.
7 Auezov House Museum, 185 Tulebayev str.
Mukhtar Auezov (1897-1961) was the main writer of Soviet Kazakhstan, the
author of the monumental novel "The Way of Abai", dedicated to the life
of another major figure of Kazakh literature who lived fifty years
earlier. If their works are unfamiliar to you, and the stages of their
life are uninteresting, pay attention to the house itself: this is a
rare example of small forms in Stalinist architecture. The cottage was
built in 1951 in the very center of Alma-Ata specifically for the
writer, after his death it was almost immediately turned into a museum,
so all the exhibits here are authentic.
8 Tengri-Umai Gallery, Panfilov Street, 103 (at the intersection of Gogol and Panfilov Streets) (Zhibek Zholy). 10:00–17:30 except Sun. Free admission. One of the first private art galleries in Kazakhstan opened in April 1992. Exhibitions are regularly held here, representing the full diversity of contemporary art — from painting to photography, from drawings to installations, from art design to street art.
9 Opera House (Abai Kazakh Opera and Ballet Theatre), 110 Kabanbai
Batyr Street (Almaly). The repertoire includes productions of Russian
and European classics, as well as operas and ballets by Kazakh
composers, such as the opera Abai based on a libretto by Mukhtar Auezov.
The theatre building is one of the symbols of the city; it is depicted
on the two-thousand-ruble Kazakh banknote. It was built in the late
1930s in the spirit of weighty Stalinist classicism. The frieze
depicting the deeds of the Kazakh people is especially good. There is
also plenty of national ornamentation: this is probably one of the first
buildings in the country where it is used so actively. In front of the
theatre there is a pool with fountains and two intricate columns with
street clocks, and in the park next door there are monuments to Auezov
and Dzhambul.
10 Kazakh Drama Theatre (named after M.O. Auezov), 103
Abay Avenue (Auezov Theatre). Productions based on the works of Kazakh
authors and world classics translated into Kazakh. The performances are,
accordingly, in Kazakh with simultaneous translation into Russian. A
very elegant building with the openwork effect of light facades
characteristic of Almaty. An impressive bronze Auezov sits in front of
the entrance on the side of the avenue.
11 Russian Drama Theatre
(named after M.Yu. Lermontov), st. Bayseitova, 43 (corner of Abay and
Abylay Khan avenues). In addition to the main large stage, there is also
a small stage in the same building. The repertoire consists of Russian
(Chekhov, Gogol) and Western classics, as well as plays by contemporary
authors. The theater building, built in the late 1960s, has the status
of an architectural monument, a rather complex configuration with a
difference in floors (due to the fact that it was built on a hill) and
many stained glass windows, which, however, are completely invisible
from the avenues due to the tall fir trees of the garden surrounding the
theater. In the garden, as usual, there are fountains.
12 Uyghur Theater
(musical comedy named after K. Kuzhamyarov), st. Nauryzbay Batyr, 83. It
is hard to say whether there are other Uyghur theaters in the world, but
this is definitely the only one where you can see a Uyghur production in
a language you understand. The theater building was once a good monument
to constructivism (1933-1934), but the reconstruction of the early 2000s
completely deprived it of both its historical appearance and any
cultural value.
13 Korean Theater (Musical Comedy), ul. Papanina, 70/1.
In 1937, this theater was deported to Central Asia from Vladivostok
along with Far Eastern Koreans. It wandered for a long time between
Kyzylorda and Taldykorgan until it finally settled in Alma-Ata. It
differs from other ethnic theaters in that the plays are performed
exclusively by representatives of the titular nation - this was
especially funny in Soviet times, when, for example, they created a
stage image of V. I. Lenin. Now the theater is not very active,
productions are held at best once a week.
14 German Drama Theater,
ul. Satpayev, 64d. It was created in 1975, many years later than the
Uyghur and Korean. Since then, it has changed a lot, since most of the
previous actors preferred to work in Germany. Now the theater is
interesting mainly because foreign directors, both German and Russian,
often stage plays here.
15 Theater "ARTiSHOK", ul. Kunaeva, 49. The
name speaks for itself - this is an experimental theater, whose
directors boldly try new forms, and, according to the public, quite
successfully. Underground in the literal and figurative sense of the
word: the theater is located in the basement of a residential building,
pipes and other communications run directly above the stage.
16. Cinema "Arman", Dostyk Avenue, 104. The main cinema of Soviet Alma-Ata is unlikely to surprise the sophisticated viewer. However, the building, built in 1968, is quite interesting and has even been declared an architectural monument of local significance. On the side facades are giant sculptural compositions showing the historical path of Kazakhstan.
17 Kok-Tyube (Kok Tobe). Cable car: 10:00–22:00, attractions and
restaurants open until late. Cable car: 6,000 tenge round trip. The
mountain with the TV tower is a popular holiday destination. At 1,130 m
above sea level, it is about 300 m higher than the city centre, and the
summit offers stunning views of Almaty and the Zailiysky Alatau ridge
that borders it to the south. The TV tower itself, with its
monumentality, is also worth a closer look, although you can’t get close
to it, and a panoramic restaurant was built on it but never opened. The
best way to the mountain is by cable car, the final station of which is
located next to the Abai monument and the Kazakhstan Hotel. Along the
way, you will see the Almaty private sector and will be able to
literally look into someone else's yard: from the cable car, you can
clearly see the life of local residents. A cheap alternative to the
cable car is buses 95, 99 to the final stop, but from the stop you will
have to walk a little more uphill. At the top, in addition to the
observation deck, there is a granite fountain in the form of an Almaty
apple, into the pool of which visitors like to throw coins (the Chinese
throw paper yuan), as well as a small park, which is steadily being
built up with attractions: there is a mini Ferris wheel, a rail sled
with a fairly extreme route, three small zoos - a contact zoo, an
exotarium and just a zoo, as well as many other entertainments, designed
mainly for families with children. The cost of all this is indicated on
the website in detail. The best viewing platform is on the terrace of
the Abay restaurant, hanging over a cliff and allowing you to admire the
views of the mountains on one side and the panorama of the city on the
other. This is a very popular place for recreation among Almaty
residents: to get a good place on the terrace, come on a weekday before
lunch.
The Beatles Monument. According to the author, the famous
Kazakhstani sculptor Eduard Kazaryan, this is the first Beatles monument
in the world depicting the entire group at once, and in life-size. The
bronze sculptural composition is a park bench on which John Lennon is
sitting with a guitar, and around him are Paul McCartney, George
Harrison and Ringo Starr. There is a loudspeaker hanging nearby, through
which the band's songs are continuously (but quietly) broadcast. The
monument was erected in 2007 by local enthusiasts who coordinated their
brainchild with everyone, from the city administration and the mayor of
Liverpool to McCartney and Ringo. It turned out quite nice. In addition,
the composition itself simply begs to sit on a bench and take a photo
hugging Lennon, so on Sundays or holidays there may even be a small
queue at the monument.
Kazakh State Circus, 50 Abay Avenue (Auezov
Theatre). ☎ +7 (727) 394-49-11 (information), +7 (727) 394-49-03 (ticket
office). From 1000 to 4000 tenge, children under 4 accompanied by
parents - free of charge, without providing seats. The snow-white
permanent building of the circus was built in 1972 and forms a rather
interesting architectural triad with the Auezov Theatre opposite and,
diagonally across, the round Wedding Palace (101A Abay Avenue). Near the
circus there is a fountain complex with modern circus-themed sculptures,
as well as a bizarre tower of an unknown purpose.
Amusement park
"Fantasy World", 50a Abay Avenue (Auezov Theatre, next to the circus). ☎
+7 (727) 394-57-27. 11:00–21:00 daily, from April to September
inclusive. Children: height up to 90 cm - free, from 90 cm to 130 cm -
2000 tenge, over 130 cm - 3500 tenge. Adults: 3500 tenge. Quite a few
different rides are concentrated in a small area, including a roller
coaster. The entrance fee includes all rides, so it's a season ticket.
Park of Soviet Monuments, 4 mkrn, 24 (ave. Altynsarina, behind the
Sary-Arka cinema). It is located in the park, which is part of the
former park named after the 50th anniversary of October (popularly
"Fifty Kopecks"), and around it are houses of Khrushchev architecture,
so the place for storing obsolete monuments was chosen very well (here,
by the way, meetings of local communists traditionally take place). The
exposition is still small: Lenin from the Central Square, Kalinin from
the forecourt, Frunze from the Pine Park, Gorky from the Central Park, a
multi-figure monument to the fighters of the October Revolution and a
couple of busts. In the summer of 2018, a bust of Furmanov moved here
from Furmanov Street (present-day Nazarbayev Avenue). The entrance to
the square is free. The main territory of the former "Fifty Kopecks" is
now occupied by the Family amusement park with a Ferris wheel and
various children's joys, where entrance is already paid (400 tenge for
adults, 100 tenge for children, open from March to October from 11 a.m.
to 11 p.m.).
Almaty Zoo, 166 Esenberlin St. (near Gorky Central
Park). ✉ ☎ +7 (727) 291-37-19. 09:00 – 20:00 summer, 10:00 – 18:00
winter, daily, ticket offices close an hour earlier. Children: up to 7
years old — free of charge, from 7 to 11 years old — 200 tenge. Adults:
700 tenge (preferential categories — free of charge). It was founded in
1937 and has all the advantages and disadvantages of a typical Soviet
zoo: a lot of interesting animals, but a very small territory and,
irresponsibly, terrible cages and aviaries. In the 2010s, it began to be
gradually reconstructed, but the reconstruction for 2018 has not yet
been completed. Things are not going smoothly with the zoo's inhabitants
either: according to media reports, some of the animals died in 2016.
However, as in any zoo, real enthusiasts work here, who are doing their
best to develop the zoo and attract citizens to various charity events.
There are few large parks in Almaty, but there are a huge number of
gardens and squares of medium and small sizes. Almost all of them are
clean and well-kept, they have enough benches and trash bins, each has
some kind of monument or sculpture and almost always a fountain. All
this not only allows you to take a break in the shade while looking
around Almaty on a hot day, but also makes such a vacation an
independent and not boring way to spend time. The most famous green
areas are the park named after 28 Panfilov Guardsmen, the park on Mount
Kok-Tyube (which, however, is quickly ceasing to be a park and becoming
an amusement park) and, of course, the Central Park of Culture and
Leisure.
Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure, Gogolya St.,
1. ☎ +7 (727) 367-21-30. The oldest park in Almaty. It was created
almost simultaneously with Fort Verny, in 1856, and was originally
intended for walks of the officers of the Verny garrison. It went
through the stages of a botanical garden, laid out by local gardeners
and foresters, a paid place for citizens to rest, a place for public
festivities and rallies, a park at recreation centers and, finally, it
became familiar to Soviet and post-Soviet people as the Central Park of
Culture and Recreation, combining the park itself with ponds and alleys
and numerous attractions and entertainment. Now there are swings and
carousels (including an "extreme park" section), a water park, a "dino
park", a boat station, cafes, restaurants and more. The entertainment is
open from 11:00, they are paid, the prices for everything are listed on
the website. But you can just take a walk, combining it with a visit to
the nearby zoo.
Park named after the First President, between
Dulati Street and Sadykova (at the beginning of Al-Farabi Avenue). It is
located in the upper part of the city on the site of abandoned apple
orchards and was created for almost ten years. It was opened to visitors
in 2011. It has all the signs of an official park: a pompous and very
Soviet arch at the entrance (a la "greetings from Yalta"), a huge
spreading fountain with color music and, of course, a monument to
Nazarbayev against the background of stylized golden eagle wings,
bearing the modest name "Kazakhstan". The oak tree planted by the
president himself is equipped with a granite slab-tablet. Despite all
the pomp and polish, the park is also suitable for ordinary walks; it is
quiet, spacious, uncrowded and there are even squirrels in it.
Baum Grove, along Suyunbay Avenue (south of Almaty-1). An old forest
park in the north of Almaty, in the lower part of the city. It was
founded in 1868 by the Cossacks of Bolshaya and Malaya Stanitsa, and at
the end of the 19th century it was improved by the scientist and
forester Eduard Baum, who carried out a lot of selection work in the
grove. From here, in particular, the now familiar elm spread throughout
Semirechye. In Soviet times, the forest park gradually fell into
disrepair and is now a strange place: on the one hand, it is a forest
park massif with mystical charm with centuries-old trees and narrow
overgrown alleys, a kind of local Broceliande forest; on the other hand,
despite its cult status (at any attempt to build up the territory of the
grove, Almaty residents almost come out to rallies), Baum's grove is not
popular as a place of rest and has a rather bad reputation as a haven
for all sorts of antisocial elements. The intentions of the city
authorities to somehow improve the grove remain only on paper. Botanical
Garden, ul. Timiryazev, 36D. ✉ ☎ +7 (727) 394-73-76. 10:00–19:00
(greenhouses — 10:00–16:00). 350 tenge for adults, discounted categories
are cheaper. Like any self-respecting big city, Almaty has its own
botanical garden, which combines scientific and popularizing activities.
The latter includes excursions: a general tour of the garden and a
separate tour of the tropical greenhouses. The greenhouses are open from
Tuesday to Friday. Entrance is inexpensive, but the prices for photo and
video shooting are absolutely exorbitant (3,000 and 5,000 tenge per
hour, respectively). However, this apparently applies to professional
shooting. Like the Baum Grove, the Botanical Garden has survived a long
period of semi-abandonment and attempts to build elite housing on it, as
well as a terrible fire in 2012, but there are plans for reconstruction,
revival and improvement.
Pine Park (Karagayly Park), Kabanbay
Batyr Street (opposite the Almaty City Museum). The park is unique not
only for its vegetation (pine trees are rare for Almaty), but also for
its history, which is very indicative of the USSR. It was planted by the
children of the Vernoye Orphanage (the building of which now houses the
museum) at the end of the 19th century and was originally called the
Orphan Garden. During the Soviet era, it became the Children's Park,
first named after Trotsky, and then named after Dzerzhinsky; of course,
there was also a monument to Dzerzhinsky in it. Next to the park was the
NKVD building, which is why the Children's Park is repeatedly mentioned
in Yuri Dombrovsky's novel, The Faculty of Unnecessary Things. By the
way, the building still stands, and houses the district police
department. On the other side of the park was the Palace of Pioneers
(demolished in 2006 to make way for the Rixos Hotel). In the late Soviet
era, this was a typical "pioneer park" with plaster sculptures, a wooden
stage and board games. Now all this is gone, and there is just a small,
well-kept park with modern playgrounds, benches and paths, but the
history has not gone away: now there is a monument to the akyn
Turmagambet Iztleuov, who was shot in 1939, and on May 31, 2017, a
terrible monument "Ana" ("Mother") was opened in the depths of the park,
reminding us of the victims of the Kazakh famine of 1931-1933.
You can walk around Almaty without any plan, just looking at the
city, or create your own plan for visiting attractions and cultural
centers using a map and a guide. However, there are also several
specific routes such as “educational walks”, following which you can
simultaneously walk and look at something interesting.
Fountains
of Almaty. There are more than a hundred fountains and fountain
complexes in Almaty, and you can devote a whole day or two to finding
and examining them. Officially, they work from May 25 (Fountain Day) to
October 25, from 10 am to 2 am according to a single schedule; some are
equipped with color music, there are also “dancing” fountains that
behave in the most bizarre way. The most famous Almaty fountain is the
“Eastern Calendar” near the building of the Academy of Sciences. The
oldest fountain complex, opened in 1948, is near the facade of the Opera
House. The largest fountains are the color-music fountain in the First
President Park and the tall fountain with a system of pools near the
Kazakhstan Hotel. One of the most popular is the apple fountain on Mount
Kok-Tyube. An interesting "dancing" fountain complex with modern
sculptures can be found near the circus. It is also worth paying
attention to the fountain composition "Zhetisu" ("Semirechye") at the
intersection of Abay Avenue and Tulebayev Street (near the Auezov House
Museum). The other hundred or so fountains look simpler, but since they
are all different and one of them can be found in almost any park or
square, as well as near many public buildings, a journey from fountain
to fountain can become an interesting quest around the city.
Along Tsoyevsky places, Tulebayev Street (at the intersection with
Kabanbay Batyr Street). All true fans of Viktor Tsoi know that the cult
film "The Needle" was filmed in Alma-Ata. The city authorities and the
public decided to immortalize such a significant fact and for the 30th
anniversary of the film they made a memorial area on the boulevard in
the middle of Tulebaev Street, where the final scene of "The Needle" was
filmed: they recreated the benches and lanterns that stood here in the
late 80s, planted the same Christmas trees, and even mounted brass
plaques with quotes from Tsoi's songs into the paving slabs, and on June
21, 2018, on the musician's birthday, they erected a monument to Tsoi in
the image of Moro, the main character of the film. From here you can go
down Tulebayev Street to Gogolya Street and find the Otrar Hotel (Gogol,
73), where the film crew lived, or go down another block to Zhibek Zholy
Street and see the House of Scientists (Zhibek Zholy, 60), also known as
the "House with Fireplaces" - a picturesque building built in the early
1950s, where, according to the plot, the apartment of the film's heroine
Dina was located. In addition, there are a dozen memorial plaques on the
house dedicated to people who really lived here - Kazakhstani professors
and academics.
Zhibek Zholy Street, from Abylai Khan Street to
Kunayev Street. One of the oldest streets in Almaty, the business and
shopping center of the city. Initially called, accordingly, Torgovaya,
in Soviet times it became Gorky Street, and received its modern name
(translated as Silk Road) in the 1990s. It has not lost its
significance, and since a significant part of the street became
pedestrian, it has also begun to serve as a local promenade. In
addition, since the beatnik-hippie times, it was a popular hangout for
local informals, and in modern times, street musicians and artists have
settled here. There are practically no old buildings left on Zhibek
Zholy - except for the house of Aksakal Seidalin and "Kyzyl-Tan" - but
there are a number of large retail outlets (Universam 100, TsUM, Green
Bazaar) and many smaller shops, there are cafes, fountains, and benches.
Well, and a unique atmosphere, thanks to which Zhibek Zholy is rightly
compared to Arbat.
Panfilov Street, from Kabanbai Batyr Street to
Zhibek Zholy Street (Almaly). It became a pedestrian street (partially)
in 2017 and is not particularly remarkable in itself, but it is
convenient because while walking along it, you can see several sights
along the way. It is worth starting from the opera house and going down
to Zhibek Zholy. On the left hand side, you will see the constructivist
House of the Council of People's Commissars (Academy of Arts), a park
with an interesting modern sculpture at the academy, Astana Square with
the Central Park (which is also worth a look) and the former Government
House. Many cafes, street musicians, fountains and benches are included.
In addition, on Panfilov Street in the area of Astana Square, there is
a whole shopping arcade with souvenirs on national themes, which can be
a godsend for a tourist, since there are surprisingly few such outlets
in Almaty. A pair of twin towers rises above the intersection of Zhibek
Zholy and Panfilov Streets, an 18-story residential complex of the
mature modernism period. One of these high-rise buildings houses one of
the oldest art galleries in the city, Tengri-Umai.
Timiryazev Street,
from the Esentai River to Atakent. Timiryazev Street is located in the
upper, but not fashionable part of the city, almost entirely built up
with Soviet five-story buildings and in itself does not represent the
slightest interest. However, if you live somewhere nearby, then here you
will find a couple of places where you can spend time with some
pleasure. This is, firstly, the Botanical Garden, and secondly, the
territories to the right and left of it.
KazGUgrad, 71 Al-Farabi Ave.
The university campus occupies a huge territory between Timiryazev
Street, Botsad, the Esentai River and Al-Farabi Avenue, but the
buildings are not too densely built up and in fact is a large and very
beautiful park. The main entrance with an arch, a wide alley and
fountains is from Timiryazev; there is also the Students' Palace (where
various citywide concerts often take place), which is another good
example of Almaty's "openwork" architecture, and in the center of the
alley there is a monument to Al—Farabi, which looks very impressive
against the background of mountains. Behind him, the alley rises
smoothly and for a long time to the avenue; near the information center
you can find a platform with another fountain of the "Oriental Calendar"
type, and if you look to the left, a sculptural composition of rushing
horses is suddenly discovered in the direction of the Esentai Tower
skyscraper. Entrance to the territory is free.
Atakent, Timiryazev
Street, 42 (in line with Auezov Street). Previously, this place was the
site of the Kazakhstan VDNKh, hence the name ("Atakent" in Kazakh means
"exhibition"). Now Atakent is positioned as a trade and exhibition
center. Several heavily rebuilt pavilions remain from the former VDNKh,
all other buildings are modern, and various exhibitions and fairs are
held here quite often. However, a fairly large part of the territory is
occupied by an unexpectedly clean and not without imagination planned
park with fountains and carp in ponds, where it is pleasant to walk and
relax. Well, and this is simply a significant place for the city: any
Almaty resident will immediately answer the question of how to get to
Atakent (or to the Exhibition). And in the summer of 2018, a giant straw
squirrel created by foreign sculptors appeared in Atakent, after which
the city's residents were divided into two camps: some consider the
squirrel an interesting landmark, while others dream of burning it no
later than the next Maslenitsa.
Esentai River Embankment (Khamit
Ergaliyev Embankment), from Al-Farabi Avenue to Abay Avenue. Esentai,
also known as Vesnovka, is one of the mountain rivers that crosses
Almaty from south to north. Within the city limits, the banks and the
riverbed are concreted in the form of cascading rapids, and when the
river is full-flowing (in spring and until about mid-summer), it looks
quite picturesque and caresses the ear with the sound of man-made
waterfalls. A two-level embankment is made on both banks: the upper one
is good for a walk, as it is shady and has plenty of benches, and the
lower embankment is good for cycling or scootering. In addition, there
are a dozen pedestrian bridges across Vesnovka. It is best to walk along
the embankment from top to bottom, that is, along the river, from south
to north, starting from the Esentai Tower and the Esentai Mall complex
(you can combine this route with a walk around KazGUgrad, exiting
through the university park at Al-Farabi). At the same time, it is worth
looking into the park between these glass giants, where, it turns out,
several interesting modern sculptures have been installed (Fernando
Botero, Jaume Plensa - who would expect to see their works in Almaty?).
A walk from here to Abay Avenue will take about an hour of leisurely
walking; here Esentai leads us to the circus, the Auezov Theater and the
World of Fantasy Park. There is no pedestrian embankment further and you
can continue walking along Abay Avenue.
Alma-Ata Airport is one of the hubs of Kazakhstan and all of Central
Asia, and if the airline of the same name Air Astana operates many
flights from Astana to the north and west, then from Almaty it more
often flies to the south and east. Daily flights to Tashkent, Bishkek,
Dushanbe, Urumqi, as well as Beijing or, for example, Delhi. In the
Russian direction, there are flights to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan,
Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk. For connections from Europe, Turkish
Airlines (Istanbul) and flights via Dubai are suitable.
1 Airport (IATA: ALA). The new and relatively small terminal serves all
flights - domestic and international. The old terminal next door (an
interesting monument of Stalinist style) is given over to VIP flights.
On the first floor in the arrivals hall there are two storage lockers, a
24-hour currency exchange office with a mediocre dollar/euro rate and a
terrible ruble rate, as well as several souvenir shops that also sell
SIM cards. The best food outlet is the 24-hour AirLunch canteen in the
arrivals area with very liberal prices (less than 2,000 tenge for a hot
dish) and a nice atmosphere; there are even sockets, but there is no
coffee, for which you need to go to the second floor, to the check-in
area, where there are several nice cafes with European prices (coffee -
from 1,000 tenge) and, for the most part, without sockets. In the clean
area there are a couple of bars with coffee/beer and cakes, and at the
boarding gate you can find a cafe with quite urban prices (terminal A,
opposite the VIP lounge), where you can buy food and drink for the road
- however, only those who have tenge left will be able to use it. There
is also a closed smoking balcony under the stairs at Terminal A. Flights
to Russia are sent as international, but you won't be able to shop in
duty-free, since Russia and Kazakhstan are members of the Customs Union.
When arriving and departing, expect long queues at border control:
flights are usually grouped together. Free Wi-Fi with registration by
phone number will help pass the time.
How to get there: bus 92 goes
directly to the terminal, running every 7-10 minutes (the schedule is
posted at the bus stop) to the city center (Raimbek Batyr, Almaty-2
railway station, Sayakhat bus station). Travel time is from half an hour
to infinity, depending on traffic jams. You can buy a bus ticket from
the driver, see Transport. There is a machine for refilling ОҢАЙ cards
near the bus stop! In theory, it should sell them, but in fact it
doesn't. If you wish, you can also exit the airport and walk 300 m along
Mailina Street to the Dom Kultury/Airport stop, where buses 36 and 41 to
Almaty-1 Station, 106 to Sairan Bus Station, and 79 to Atakent join the
92nd.
A taxi is a little faster than a bus, but can also
get stuck in traffic jams. Expect 20 minutes at night and at least 40
minutes during rush hour. Taxi prices vary widely. Expect a trip from
the center to the airport outside rush hour to cost 2,500-3,500 tenge
when ordered online.
The Turksib railway, which connected Siberia and Central Asia in the
late 1920s, passes through Almaty. Another line goes north to Karaganda
and Astana. The nearest cities of interest are Taraz (7-9 hours),
Shymkent (10-14 hours) and Astana itself, which the Talgo high-speed
train reaches in 13.5 hours, while regular express trains take 16-19
hours. Express trains run at night. Reserved seats and compartments are
usually somewhat cheaper than planes, while luxury ones are the same
price or more expensive.
International service: every other day
there is a night train to Tashkent (17 hours) - this is also Talgo, but
tickets are 30-40% more expensive than domestic tickets for the same
distance, they can be bought online. The train to Bishkek (Kyrgyz, from
Novokuznetsk) does not run every day and takes 13 hours, so everyone
travels by minibus. There are trains to Urumqi twice a week: one is
Chinese via Khorgos (23 hours), the other is Kazakh via Dostyk (30
hours). Tickets are sold only at ticket offices upon presentation of a
visa. Information on prices varies, but tickets are definitely not
cheaper than plane tickets. In the Russian direction, there is a
Kazakh-formed train to Novosibirsk every other day (40 hours); a
reserved seat is noticeably cheaper than a plane.
There are two
train stations in the city: the transit Almaty-1 on the northern
outskirts and the dead-end Almaty-2 practically in the center. Trains
usually depart from Almaty-2, after which they make an intermediate stop
at Almaty-1, but not always. Less frequent passing trains stop only at
Almaty-1.
1 Almaty-1 (bus 2 or any transport on Saken Seifullin
Avenue). The station is located on the outskirts, 11 km from the city
center, but unlike Almaty-2, it is a walk-through station, so there are
slightly more trains here. The building was built in 1974, but was
significantly modernized in the early 2000s. In the square there is a
monument to Alibi Dzhangildin, the main Kazakh revolutionary.
2
Almaty-2, at the beginning of Abylay Khan Avenue (10 minutes walk from
Raimbek Batyr or bus 5). A larger, but dead-end station, serving only
trains starting or ending their route in Almaty. The monumental building
built in 1939 has preserved luxurious sculptures and a gloomy interior
of the inner halls. At the station there are a couple of shops, a
storage room (300-600 tenge/day) and a canteen located in the right
(eastern) wing, occupying a hall with beautiful stucco, but filled with
an unbearable smell of Soviet public catering. It is better to while
away the time in the shopping center "Altyn Talaz" located on the
station square (10:00 - 20:00), where there is a cozy coffee shop
"Zhailau" with a lunch menu, and if the shopping center is closed, just
walk forward along Abylai Khan Avenue, and on the left hand side there
will be a couple of normal cafes open until late.
From Almaty, there are buses all over Kazakhstan. You can also go to
neighboring countries, but the only place where the journey is not very
long is Bishkek (5 hours). In the direction of Kyrgyzstan, there are
minibuses when full from the Sairan bus station and from the Altyn Orda
market. Some minibuses cross the border, although the more common option
is a Kazakh minibus to the border (Kordai) and then a Kyrgyz minibus to
the center of Bishkek.
In Urumqi (24 hours), there are Chinese
sleeper buses with bunks several times a day.
In the western
direction, there are frequent buses to Taraz (departing from morning
until evening, 6 hours) and night buses to Shymkent (10-12 hours). Buses
to Tashkent also run at night; like Bishkek, they often go to the border
rather than to Tashkent itself. From the border to Tashkent there are
several kilometers, the easiest way is to take a taxi.
3 Sayran
Bus Station. The main bus station, from which all long-distance routes
depart, is located at a considerable distance from the metro station of
the same name and 8 km from the center. Many city buses traveling along
Tole Bi Street in the western direction go to this bus station.
4 Sayakhat Bus Station (5-7 minutes from Raimbek Batyr). A typical
Central Asian bus station with stalls and barkers - fortunately, not
very large, since it only serves short-distance routes in the eastern
direction (Esik, Kapchagay, Taldykorgan). A pavilion with a dispatcher,
a couple of rows of metal chairs and a storage room (8:00 – 20:00). Some
minibuses depart not from the bus station itself, but from the
intersection of Prospekt Raimbek and Pushkin Street. Civilization with
more or less decent cafes begins there, although it is better to walk 5
minutes towards the metro.
5 Altyn Orda (Borlyk), Raimbek
Avenue, on the way out of the city (from the center, buses 11, 16, 23,
49). A spontaneous bus station near a huge market. Transport in the
western direction, including to the Uzbek and Kyrgyz borders, is usually
cheaper than from Sayran.
There are few roads to Alma-Ata: a mountain range blocks the way from
the south, and all roads in the north direction are of poor quality. The
highway from west to east, part of the "New Silk Road", is being
actively built and reconstructed. In the western direction — to Taraz
(500 km), Shymkent (700 km) and Tashkent (820 km) with a branch to
Bishkek (240 km) — mostly four-lane. A new autobahn has been built to
the Chinese border, which continues to the Chinese autobahns in Urumqi
(1100 km), but it will not be possible to go there without Chinese
rights. If you still need to go north, then a two-lane road of variable
quality leads towards Balkhash (650 km), Karaganda (1000 km) and Astana
(1200 km).
The main route to Kyrgyzstan is through Bishkek. There
is also the Kegen — Tyup mountain road, which goes to the eastern shore
of Issyk-Kul and has unpaved sections in the border area, but is
passable for cars. The road itself (and the border crossing on it) are
open from May to October and only during the daytime (until about
18:00).
The main city transport is buses. There is a small trolleybus network
(8 routes) and one metro line. Unlike most other cities in Kazakhstan,
transport is convenient and fairly orderly: there are no touts, stops
are well marked, and they even have information about routes. On the
other hand, the drivers are not far removed from other Central Asian
ones, so constantly honking horns, driving with open doors, and shouting
at lingering passengers are the order of the day. Like everything else
in the city, transport becomes more civilized when traveling south
("up") and more chaotic when traveling north ("down"). For example, a
bus to Medeu looks like it's in Europe, and a bus to the airport makes
it clear that Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are very close. It's worth
keeping in mind that buses in Almaty are almost always packed to
capacity, especially the popular main routes.
It's nice to walk
in the center of Almaty, but you can feel the slope, and the distances
are quite large. True, you can always sit down and rest on one of the
benches that are scattered around the city in abundance (usually in
large cities benches are a rarity, and Almaty is a pleasant exception in
this regard). Walking somewhere outside the center is below average
pleasure, use buses, trolleybuses or taxis, but in the summer, keep in
mind that buses are usually very hot and stuffy - trolleybuses are much
cooler. As for the metro, due to the long intervals and short distances
between stations in the center, it makes sense to use it only when you
need to travel more than one stop or during rush hour, when the city is
in traffic jams that are no worse than in Moscow.
Tickets: to pay
for travel, use the ONAY! smart card, which works as an electronic
wallet. Cash payments are not possible. One trip by ground transport or
metro costs 120 tenge (2024). The card itself costs 500 tenge, of which
400 tenge is the deposit, and another 100 tenge is immediately credited
to the account. The card is easy to use, but it is not very easy to buy.
The most reliable option is to go to the service center.
The ONAY
service center.
in the shopping center next to the Almaty-2 train
station (10:00 - 20:00). Do not stand in line, but push through the
crowd to the empty cash registers at the far end of the hall. Money is
put on the card in the same rare places where it is sold, or in Qiwi
terminals (about 2,000 points around the city). A ticket for a calendar
month costs 7,200 tenge and is loaded onto the card.
Route
planner: it is most convenient to use 2gis and Yandex maps (don't forget
to switch to the local version yandex.kz).
The bike rental
service that appeared in Almaty makes little sense, since it requires an
annual subscription fee of 10,000 tenge and is intended more for local
residents who use bicycles within a free 30-minute period: if they need
to ride a route that takes more than half an hour, enterprising Almaty
residents build it through several rental points, returning the bike and
receiving a new one, which resets the minute counter. However, there are
also separate one-time rental points. In addition, there are several
scooter sharing services in the city, the most popular of which are
Whoosh, Yandex-Go and Jet. Many streets are equipped with bike paths,
which are made at a very decent level, but the city's terrain is far
from everywhere conducive to cycling or even scootering. It is best to
ride on those streets that are parallel to the mountains (Timiryazev
Street, Abay Avenue, Gogol Street and some others). Using a personal car
can be quite inconvenient, because, firstly, the traffic organization in
the metropolis is frankly lame, and Kazakhstani drivers often behave
rudely and drive “on the edge”, creating emergency situations. Plus,
during morning and evening rush hours, the city is almost completely
immersed in traffic jams. Chaos on the road is also added by food
delivery people, who move around the city in huge numbers on mopeds and
scooters and ignore all conceivable and inconceivable traffic rules. So
if you came to the city by car, it is better to leave it near your place
of residence and move around the city by public transport or taxi, which
will greatly save nerves and money.
In Almaty, there are also car
sharing services - "Anytime" (a subsidiary of the Russian "Delimobil")
and "Doscar". They operate only within the city and cannot yet boast a
large fleet, but at times they can be useful.
The first and only line of the Almaty metro opened in 2011, it
connects the northern part of the center (Almaty-2 station and Sayakhat
bus station) with the southern part and the areas to the west of it. The
metro in some places resembles the Russian one, only the trains are
Korean, and the stations are announced in three languages. There are not
many people, the trains run infrequently: the interval is 7 minutes
during rush hour and 9-10 minutes at other times. Operating hours are
from 6:20 to 23:30. The fare is 120 tenge (2024) and is paid for with an
ОҢЕЙ! card or contactless bank card, you can also buy a yellow smart
token for one trip at the ticket office or machine. Please note that
tokens are programmed and are valid only on the day of purchase. At the
entrance to each station, things are scanned without fail, and small
queues form during rush hours.
Do not expect outstanding station
design from the Almaty metro. Perhaps it does not deserve a separate
visit, but still at the station "Zhibek Zholy" there is a panel on the
theme of the Silk Road, at "Almaly" - ornaments and a stained glass
panel depicting traditional apple trees, and at the station "Theater
named after Mukhtar Auezov" - medallions on the theme of national
history. Those who want to touch something native should go to the
station "Moskva", in the design of which the Kremlin towers can be
guessed - it is a "twin" of the Moscow station "Alma-Atinskaya".
Ground transportation
The line between buses and minibuses in Almaty
has been erased: all of them are simply called buses, run on fixed
routes and only in rare cases pick up or drop off passengers not at
stops. Each car has at least one validator to which you need to apply
the ОҢЕЙ! card, after which, if everything is OK, a green "tick" will
appear on the screen and a quiet sound signal will be heard, and if the
payment did not go through (which happens) and a red cross appeared, the
sound will be more unpleasant and louder - the driver monitors this.
However, there are also controllers.
Routes: the official website
has a service showing the current location of buses, and an incredibly
poor route planner. You can also use Yandex or 2gis. With rare
exceptions, there are no schedules, and travel time estimates are
conditional due to traffic jams. During rush hour, overcrowded buses
often pass by stops.
Operating hours: from 6:00 to 23:00
(officially), in practice, transport can stop running as early as 8-9
pm. The interval is small, less than 10 minutes for all major routes.
Taxi
The cheapest way is to catch a ride: if you know the prices
and know how to bargain, a ride within the center should cost 500-700
tenge, and to the outskirts - about 1500 tenge. In official services,
prices are slightly higher, the highest - in international services like
Uber. There is also Yandex.Taxi. Local companies are noticeably cheaper,
for example "Econom Taxi" - +7 (727) 245-47-47, +7 (727) 390-44-70.
Like any large developed city, Almaty abounds with a wide variety of
shops. In residential areas there are many small grocery stores within
walking distance; they are usually located on the ground floors of
residential buildings and converted from former apartments. In the
center there are noticeably fewer such stores, but there are plenty of
clothing, shoe, etc. stores - ranging from elite boutiques to
second-hand stores. Popular chain grocery hypermarkets "Realist",
"Ramstore" and others, there are also large shopping and entertainment
centers ("Mega", etc.) with cinemas and food courts. At the same time,
there are few 24-hour retail outlets in Almaty, although some private
grocery stores leave a salesperson on duty overnight, who sells goods
upon knocking on the window in the door of the store. But in Almaty,
exchange offices often work around the clock, and there are a lot of
them, so exchanging any currency whenever and wherever is not difficult.
The exchange rate is more or less the same everywhere, but on the
outskirts it is slightly better than in the center.
A certain
local trading specificity of Almaty (in comparison with Russian cities)
is not only that there are many goods from China, but also that these
goods are often of very good quality, since they were originally
produced "for their own", that is, for the domestic Chinese market. For
example, in Almaty you can buy quite high-quality Chinese skin care
cosmetics inexpensively. The downside of this feature is the lack of
translation on the price tags not only into Russian, but sometimes even
into English.
1 Gastronom "Stolichny", 121 Abylay Khan Ave. /
Kabanbay Batyr St. Open 24 hours. The former central grocery store was
converted into a supermarket, which hardly did it any good: the hall is
long and narrow, and the goods are very closely spaced. Good selection,
lots of local groceries, confectionery and pastries — this is the place
to come for national Kazakh products.
2 Yubileiny supermarket, 74
Abylay Khan Ave. (along Gogolya St.). ☎ +7 (727) 313-12-29, +7 (727)
313-14-54. Open 24 hours. Almaty cannot boast of a large number of
24-hour stores, so in this regard, Yubileyny, like Stolichny, is a
godsend for tourists. Compared to Stolichny, the selection is poorer,
but there is an extensive culinary department.
3 Universam 100,
Abylay Khan Ave. Zhibek Zholy, 67. 08:00–20:00, Sun 09:00–17:00. In
Soviet times it was one of the main shopping centers in the city, now it
is just one of the supermarkets in the center.
4 TSUM, Zhibek Zholy
Ave., 85. 10:00–22:00. As in other cities in the post-Soviet space, the
reconstruction turned TSUM into a beautiful but faceless shopping
center, most of which is occupied by elite boutiques. However, this is
one of the few opportunities to buy national souvenirs in the city
center — most of the third floor is occupied by them.
5 Green Bazaar
(Kok Bazaar), a block between Pushkin, Zenkova, Makataeva and Zhibek
Zholy streets. The central market of Almaty is something between an
oriental bazaar and the market of a large Russian city. The indoor
pavilion has a local assortment (excellent vegetables and fruits,
cheeses, spices, dried fruits), and the atmosphere is unusually calm for
the south of Kazakhstan: the sellers do not call out or praise their
goods to the whole district, and, as they say, they do not like to
bargain. The assortment is very good: you can walk around to see what is
available, and at least drink a glass of pomegranate juice. In the meat
rows, you can buy a set for making kazy (horse sausage): long cuts of
meat that will be packed in a horse intestine in front of you and
seasoned with the necessary set of spices; all that remains is to carry
the purchase home and boil it for a couple of hours. Outside, the
pavilion is surrounded by a street market, where they also sell food,
although clothing and household goods predominate. There is no color
here: this is not the Central Asian market where they sell cattle and
cut up meat in the mud - rather, it is just a large flea market similar
to the Chinese ones in the Far East.
6 Nikolsky Bazaar, ul.
Baitursynov, 56B/1 (corner of ul. Karasai Batyr). Another old Almaty
bazaar. It got its name from the nearby Nikolsky Cathedral and in the
past it was quite large, but now it occupies a relatively small area.
But it is famous for its book rows: new and used books are sold here in
a wide range and at very low prices, you can even find real second-hand
book rarities.
7 Almaty flea market, ul. Severnoe Koltso (stop
"Sultan-Korgan Market"). A huge complex of markets located along
Severnoe Koltso Street, a kind of trading city within the city. You can
buy almost everything here, although most of all, of course, there are
inexpensive goods from nearby China. However, wandering around the flea
market takes so much time (count on a full day) and energy that if you
are not a fan of shopping, it is better not to even go there.
In terms of the diversity and especially the authenticity of its
culinary traditions, Alma-Ata is far ahead of most Russian cities,
sometimes reminiscent of American cities, where large ethnic communities
run good Asian restaurants. Alma-Ata will not disappoint lovers of
Korean, Chinese, and Uyghur food. Kazakh cuisine is found mainly in
specialized restaurants, but can be found in others. The main dish is
beshbarmak, which in the Kazakh version is usually prepared from boiled
lamb, laid out on diamond-shaped pieces of boiled dough; fresh or fried
onions are sprinkled on top and seasoned with a strong broth. Sometimes
beshbarmak is decorated with sliced kazy and chuzhuk (boiled horse
sausages). At traditional Kazakh tois (feasts), a whole boiled ram's
head is served separately with beshbarmak, the parts of which - the
tongue, ears, eyes - are distributed by the elder to the honored guests.
Kazy and chuzhuk are also served as a separate dish. The Kazakh
alternative to the usual shashlik and barbecue is koktal — carp baked on
coals on a grill in a special koktal maker with vegetables and herbs.
Kuyrdak is widely spread — a roast of offal with onions (sometimes it is
just meat, but still with the addition of offal). When ordering
something like this, remember that all meat dishes are very fatty and
may not look very appetizing to a non-local (for example, the
faint-hearted should not order a lamb's head, which is fried whole and
served on the table in this form). However, most Almaty establishments
are not keen on anything like this, focusing on Russian and European
dishes with the addition of Central Asian and national ones — for
example, Uyghur lagman (noodles with a hot seasoning, vegetables and
meat, reminiscent of Chinese udon), in various variations extremely
popular in the city. In addition, Chinese cuisine is becoming more and
more popular - from fast food (the Red Dragon chain) to specialized
restaurants. The choice in Almaty is much better than in any other city
in Kazakhstan, so if you do not want to cross paths with Central Asian
cuisine, you can easily do so. If you are ready for only small
experiments, from local products it is worth trying dairy products:
drinks ayran (made from cow's milk), kumys (made from mare's milk),
shubat (made from camel milk) and kurt - dry unripe salted cheese rolled
into balls.
The downside of diversity is high prices. Catering in
Almaty is noticeably more expensive than in other cities of Kazakhstan
(except Astana), and in the very center, prices are close to those in
Moscow, if not at least in St. Petersburg. Coffee shops are especially
expensive, charging 800-1000 tenge for a cup of coffee. In less posh
establishments, coffee costs 500 tenge, hot dishes - 2000-3000 tenge,
and cheaper business lunches are also common. It is difficult to eat for
less than 1200-1500 tenge, unless you eat samsa and belyashi.
When ordering drinks, keep in mind that the format of serving tea in
Almaty is Central Asian: it is customary to put a large teapot of very
diluted tea on the table, often brought to the state of syrup with honey
or sugar. In some places, the teapot is replaced by a no-frills French
press. In many establishments, tea can be made unsweetened and strong,
but you need to ask for this in advance. There is also tea in the format
of Russian cheap catering: a cup with cooled boiling water plus a tea
bag separately. Beware of teas with names like "Tashkent" or "Kazakh" -
they will contain a lot of sugar, milk and other ingredients that are
not everyone's favorite. It is better to order green tea with fatty meat
dishes, of which there are many types. As for alcoholic beverages, sweet
wine is a favorite in Kazakhstan, and the choice of dry wine,
accordingly, leaves much to be desired. Some Muslim-oriented
establishments (especially Uzbek and Uyghur) do not have alcohol at all.
As everywhere in Kazakhstan, service is included in the bill. In
Almaty, the markup is usually 10%.
Perhaps the most abundant
place in the city with restaurants and cafes (in the upper part) is
Dulati Street, popularly nicknamed "Shashlik-strasse" and running past
the park named after the First President to the entrance to the
Alma-Arasan gorge. There are many restaurants and cafes of the middle
and high price categories with a very diverse cuisine and a view of the
picturesque foothills. In the center, one of the most saturated with
cafes and restaurants locations is Abylai Khan Avenue. Outside the
center, catering is present mainly in the format of pizzerias, sushi
shops and food courts in shopping centers.
The cheapest establishments are called askhana, i.e. canteen.
1 Café «Basilic», ul. Zheltoksan, 115 (near the House of
Communications). Around the clock. Hot dishes: about 1000 tenge. Café
with service and very democratic prices. The menu is a mix of Russian
and Central Asian cuisine. The second establishment of the same chain is
located on ul. Shevchenko, 127, not far from the Auezov Theatre.
2 Lagmannaya «Dunganka», avenue Nazarbayev, 120 ( Almaly).
11:00 – 24:00. Plate of lagman: about 1000 tenge. The Dungans are
Chinese Muslims who, like the Uyghurs, migrated to Central Asia from
what is now China in the second half of the 19th century. It is unlikely
that a non-specialist will be able to distinguish their cuisine from the
Uyghur cuisine, but it is easy to understand that lagman is not a
specific dish, as it is prepared in Russia, but a whole line of meat
with noodles, differing in the set of added vegetables, sauces, the
presence or absence of broth, and a bunch of other details. In
"Dunganka", for example, there are at least 20 types of lagman, and no
other food, in general. The atmosphere is rough, the prices are low, the
portions are small. The only drinks are tea and juices-water, there is
no alcohol.
3 "Perekucity!", Gogolya St., 58 (Zhibek Zholy). Around
the clock. Lunch: 1500-2000 tenge. A large modern canteen with a good
selection of dishes and a pleasant interior. Prices are slightly higher
than in other canteens. The second such establishment is on Shevchenko
Street, 99, in the area of the St. Nicholas Cathedral.
✦ Canteen
"Kaganat". Hot: less than 1000 tenge. The main chain of Almaty canteens
- two dozen branches throughout the city, many of them open around the
clock. Catering in its crudest form, although the food is not bad.
4 Abylay Khan Avenue, 105 (next to the Communications House). Around
the clock.
5 Gogol Street, 86. Around the clock.
6 Abylay Khan
Avenue, 105 (near the Communications House). Open 24 hours. Dostyk, 108
(above the cinema "Arman"). 24 hours.
In Almaty, among other things, there is also a global fast food
chain, but here it belongs to the mid-price category.
7
Restaurant "Gosti", Kunaeva St., 78. 11:00 - 24:00. The Russian cuisine
restaurant in an old house opposite the Park of 28 Panfilov Guardsmen
positions itself as a reconstruction of a 19th-century noble estate.
Inside, it looks more like kitsch - pot-bellied lampshades and samovars
placed along the walls (the main attribute of any noble estate!) hardly
recreate any kind of atmosphere, but they look nice in themselves. The
menu offers a variety of dishes, including not quite Russian ones:
herring under a fur coat, vareniki, draniki. Good reviews.
8 Pirosmani Restaurant, 32 Ablai Khan Avenue (a couple of blocks up
from Almaty-2 Train Station). 12:00–24:00. Main course: 2,000–2,500
tenge. The signboard describes itself as an “ethnic cuisine restaurant,”
but in reality it’s a quality, beautifully decorated Georgian restaurant
with stylish wine glasses and hefty cast-iron frying pans. The prices
are moderate by Almaty standards, but the portions are small. Wi-Fi.
9 Rodem Restaurant, 78 Zheltoksan Street. 9:30–23:30. Main course:
about 3,000 tenge. An authentic Korean restaurant, where the outside is
a hall for "outsiders", and inside is for "insiders": there, taking off
their shoes, they sit on the floor at low tables. The decor is quite
simple, the food is really spicy. If you are not a fan of Korean
cuisine, ask for it to be cooked moderately spicy.
10 Shipudim
Restaurant, Zheltoksan St., 81 (Zhibek Zholy metro station). Main
course: 2500-3500 tenge. Don't be confused by the "Shashlik House" sign,
this is a cozy restaurant with a huge menu: there is European, Russian,
Kazakh, Pan-Asian cuisine - but most of the dishes are grilled. Large
portions, quiet music, very fast service even in the evening when fully
seated.
11 Restaurant "Khanshayym" (formerly "Princess"), Tulebayeva
St., 53. 12:00 – 24:00. 3500–6000 tenge. A Chinese restaurant with a
large selection of dishes from different regions of China and large
portions (you can safely order one for two). Pleasant and stylish
atmosphere, good service. On the menu, some dishes are marked as spicy,
while others are not — and this does not correlate with the actual
spiciness, check with the waiter. There is a selection of authentic
Chinese teas.
12 Restaurant "Gakku", Keremet microdistrict 7, bldg. 28 (a block from Republic Square). 10:00 – 24:00. A good restaurant of national cuisine, where they serve only those oriental dishes that really have Kazakh roots. Beshbarmak has a separate section of the menu, you can immediately take a whole baking tray for a company. Nice interior, prices are slightly above average.
There are dozens of coffee shops in the center of Almaty. They all
look very modern and usually offer a full menu from salads to hot
dishes, and the prices for food are normal for Almaty, but drinks and
desserts are expensive even by the standards of the capital: a cup of
tea or coffee with a cake will easily cost 2000-2500 tenge. Simple and
inexpensive cafes in the center are rare, so if you need somewhere to
hide from the rain or just sit with a laptop, canteens are preferable.
From May to the end of September, many cafes have summer terraces, where
in most cases there are smoking areas.
13 «Bisquit», ul.
Shevchenko, 18. 9:00 – 24:00, Fri and Sat: until 2:00. Opened in 2004
and therefore calls itself "the first coffee shop in Almaty." Cozy
atmosphere, not very efficient waiters, wide selection of desserts,
large menu of Asian and European cuisine. Prices are close to high.
14 «Bowler Coffee Roasters», ul. Kabanbai Batyr, 65. 8:00 – 20:00. A
small American-style establishment, where there is nothing superfluous —
only desserts and coffee. According to many visitors, the best baristas
in the city work here.
15 «Kangnam», ul. Panfilova, 99 / Zhibek
Zholy, 90 ( Zhibek Zholy). South Korean coffee shop, distinguished by
the presence of Korean rolls (kimbap) and desserts made from pancakes or
waffles with an abundance of fruit and cream on the menu. It is attached
to a historic house from the late 19th century, where the aksakal Seid
Seidalin lived. The house has been restored with such diligence that it
seems like a new building, but the carved frames and cornices deserve
attention.
16 «The coffee point», 115 Abylay Khan Avenue. ☎ +7 (727)
224-56-57, +7 (747) 612-60-36. 08:00 – 01:00, Fri, Sat 08:00 – 02:00.
There are many coffee shops on Abylay Khan Avenue, but this one is the
easiest to find: there is a fountain at the entrance. It also creates
additional coolness on the summer terrace. A good cafe with comfortable
chairs, a large lunch menu, an excellent selection of tea, coffee and
desserts. The prices are reasonable.
1 Arba Wine Bar, 71 Abylay Khan Avenue. 12:00–22:00. Kazakh wine
sounds like an oxymoron, but it does exist. Local enthusiasts have
revived the Semirechye vineyards, imported new varieties from Europe,
and started making wine, which can now be purchased in a special wine
boutique. It is not a full-fledged bar, i.e. it is not open late and
does not have enough tables and chairs, but it does offer tastings and
simply the opportunity to have a glass or two and snack on cheese.
2
Metro Sports and Entertainment Center, 2B Zhandosov Street (near the
Satpayev/Bayzakova Street interchange). ✉ ☎ +7 (747) 471-38-61. Open 24
hours. Restaurant, coffee shop, sushi bar, hookah bar, karaoke, bowling,
billiards, two-level indoor go-kart track, etc. The Underground
nightclub is located in the same building, where DJs and trendy pop
stars perform, and theme parties are held on Fridays and Saturdays. It
is located near the Auezov Circus and Theater, the visual landmark is
the Almaty Towers, the Almaty Twin Towers: Metro is actually at the foot
of the towers.
3 Chukotka + Bar Dacha, Gogolya St., 40 (in the park
named after 28 Panfilov Guardsmen). ☎ +7 (727) 273-39-74. 12:00–15:00
Mon, 12:00–01:00 Tue-Thu, Sun, 12:00–04:00 Fri-Sat. Average bill:
2000-4500 tenge. The building, located in the northern part of the park,
houses two establishments at once: on the 1st floor — the bar and
nightclub "Chukotka", on the 2nd floor — "Bar Dacha". On weekends, rock
bands play or DJs work. During the day on a weekday, you can just drop
in for a bite to eat. A popular hangout for Almaty youth. There is face
control (21+). Good reviews.
4 «Lenore pub» , Abay Ave., 124
(corner of Rozybakiyev St.). ☎ +7 (747) 550-15-93. 12:00–01:00 Mon-Thu,
12:00–03:00 Fri, 17:00–03:00 Sat-Sun. Average bill: 3000-4500 tenge.
Performances by rock bands of various styles (heavy metal, punk, Russian
rock, folk rock, etc.), mostly from Kazakhstan, but sometimes there are
visiting bands. Sometimes there are acoustic evenings and even poetry
readings.
5 Rock Club "Zhest", Rozybakiyev St., 236 (between Utepova
and Basenov St.). ☎ +7 (727) 337-80-71. 20:00–05:00 Thu, 21:00–05:00
Fri-Sat. Specializes mostly in performances of cover rock bands and rock
karaoke parties. Sometimes, however, artists of quite a serious caliber
perform (for example, Dolphin). You can also watch striptease here:
after 22:00 on Fridays and after 23:00 on Saturdays. At this time,
admission becomes paid (2000 tenge). The rest of the time, admission is
free or with concert tickets.
There are plenty of hotels in Almaty, they are easy to book online.
Cheap
1 Turkestan Hotel, Makatayev St., 49 (near the Green
Bazaar). ☎ +7 (727) 266-41-36, +7 (727) 266-41-38. Single/double room:
5500/8000 tenge. Judging by the guests' reviews, the hotel needs
renovation. Single rooms do not have a shower, double rooms have all the
amenities.
Average price
2 Almaty Hotel, Kabanbai Batyr St.,
85 (Almaly). ☎ +7 (727) 272-00-70. Single room: from 18,000 tenge. One
of the main Almaty hotels, built in 1967 in the shape of a slightly bent
book. A huge nine-story building, with a nice view of the mountains from
the upper floors and balconies. All the rooms have been renovated,
although in different ways, which is why the cost of accommodation can
vary by half. The cheapest rooms are simple, with windows facing the
eternally noisy Kabanbai Batyr Street, but overall it is bearable, and
the prices are reasonable, especially when ordering online. In the
evenings, a piano plays on the first floor. Good breakfasts. Wi-Fi.
3 Kazakhstan Hotel , Dostyk Avenue, 52 (at the beginning of Abay
Avenue). ☎ +7 (727) 291-96-00. Single room: from 16,000 tenge. One of
the symbols of the city and all of Kazakhstan is the 26-story hotel,
built in 1975-1977 and now depicted on the five-thousand-ruble Kazakh
banknote. It is a monument of Soviet architecture and a masterpiece of
engineering: the building is designed to withstand earthquakes of up to
9 points. The interior is in good repair, the rooms have good views of
the city, but the main reason to stay at this hotel is the breakfasts in
the panoramic restaurant on the 26th floor. However, guests complain
about the overcrowding of the elevators and other minor inconveniences.
Expensive
4 InterContinental, Zheltoksan str., 181. ☎ +7 (727)
250-50-00. From 90,000 tenge. A huge, glittering Chinese-style hotel
designed for businessmen visiting Almaty. The level is 5 stars, the
price per room is such that for the same money you can live in any other
city in Kazakhstan for a week.
The center of Almaty is quite safe at any time of day. Some outlying
areas have a bad reputation, so do not walk there in the dark if you
happen to be there. Almaty can hardly be called a tourist city, but
there are enough people with European appearance here, so tourists do
not stand out from the crowd. Unlike typical Central Asia, no one will
run after you shouting "Hello!", start sudden conversations or stop and
persistently offer to give you a ride. In some places, Almaty is quite
similar to a European city, allowing you to take a break from traveling
through the very wild Kazakh outback.
Almaty also has two natural
hazards - earthquakes and mudflows. Nothing destructive has happened in
the city for more than 50 years, but if mudflows are neutralized by a
special dam hanging over Medeu, then earthquakes pose and will always
pose a certain threat. Although the houses are designed to be
earthquake-resistant and should withstand even very strong tremors, you
can still be injured by falling objects or various side effects, such as
a fire caused by a gas leak. During an earthquake, it is recommended to
stand near load-bearing walls and under load-bearing beams, and at the
first opportunity, go outside without using the elevator, and stay away
from buildings, trees, and any objects that can fall. However, if you
come to the city for a few days, the likelihood of experiencing an
earthquake is very small, and the likelihood of being injured by it is
much lower than getting hit by a car.
When planning your travels
around the city, take into account the huge traffic jams during rush
hour - this is especially true for trips to the airport and bus
stations.
As elsewhere in Central Asia, it is not recommended to
drink tap water, although it does not pose a direct danger. Bottled
water costs 80-110 tenge per half a liter. Catering is generally safe:
take the same precautions as at home.
It can be very hot in the
summer - so hot that you won't be able to fall asleep at night in a room
without air conditioning. At a minimum, always have water with you,
choose the shady side of the street when walking, and don't forget a
hat. When going on a long walk, keep in mind that while in the
"sleeping" areas there are plenty of grocery stores where you can buy a
bottle of water, in the center there are relatively few of them (on the
long Abay Avenue, for example, there is only one), so buy water for
future use or at the first store you see. Prices for water are almost
the same everywhere.
Almost all cafes and even canteens provide Wi-Fi, in public places
such as shopping centers, authorization via SMS is required. Also, some
city buses are equipped with Wi-Fi, but there is no Internet in the
metro, there is no mobile signal.
The cheapest mobile Internet
package will cost 3000-3500 tenge per month. For foreigners, including
Russians, registration with a foreign passport is required - look for
offices of KCELL, Tele2 and Beeline operators.
If you have reached Almaty, you are unlikely to leave the city
without climbing at least a little into the mountains. The most
convenient and easiest way is to use the ski lift to Shymbulak, visiting
the high-mountain skating rink Medeu on the way, where the city bus
goes; this trip will take several hours. In good weather, it is worth
devoting a full day to this route, climbing higher than Shymbulak: ski
lifts take everyone from Medeu above 3000 m above sea level, and there
are glaciers not far from there. A wilder option, requiring a hike, is a
walk to the Alma-Arasan gorge next to Shymbulak and to the Big Almaty
Lake. It should be remembered that in the spring, access to the
Alma-Arasan gorge is blocked due to the danger of mudflows, and you
should not even try to bypass the cordons - it is life-threatening.
The territories adjacent to the border with Kyrgyzstan are included
in the border zone, which citizens of Kazakhstan can visit upon
presentation of an identity card, and citizens of other countries - upon
receipt of the appropriate permit. However, in 2015, amendments to the
rules were adopted that exempt foreign citizens from the need to obtain
a permit to enter tourist areas (Medeu, Shymbulak, Big Almaty Lake).
Crossing the border with Kyrgyzstan, except where there are equipped
crossings, is a violation of the state border. You can go to prison for
this. Of the towns surrounding Almaty, the most interesting is Esik,
where the famous "golden man" was found; now a good archaeological
museum dedicated to this event has been organized in the city. The only
city (besides Almaty) in Semirechye that is interesting precisely as a
city is Zharkent on the Chinese border, the place of residence of the
Dungans. There is a church and a mosque from the late 19th century,
which is an unthinkable rarity in these parts. Finally, Kapchagay on the
shore of the reservoir of the same name serves as a local resort, where
you can swim and sunbathe.
All other interesting places in
Semirechye are located far from the cities and can be reached either
with an excursion, or by your own transport, or (if this option does not
scare you) by combining minibuses and taxis. In one day, it is quite
possible to go, for example, to the Charyn Canyon, to the Tamgaly-Tas
petroglyphs near Kapchagay, or to the Singing Dune in Altyn Emel.
Charyn Canyon (Located 200 km east of Almaty. The trip there takes a
whole day). The Charyn River Canyon is the second largest canyon in the
world and one of the most remarkable natural monuments. It is rightfully
considered a mini-version of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River
(USA). Its reddish rocks are unusual and have a great variety of shapes,
and their appearance resembles the towers of a fairy-tale castle. Due to
this, one of the parts of the canyon (the most popular as a tourist
route) is called the "Valley of Castles". On the slopes of the canyon,
if you are lucky, you can stumble upon representatives of fossil fauna,
the age of which is 300 million years.
Based on the ancient monuments discovered by archaeologists in the
territory of modern Alma-Ata, it can be judged that this area has long
been inhabited by nomadic and semi-sedentary tribes. The most
characteristic monuments of this region are the Saka burial mounds of
the 6th-3rd centuries BC, the largest of which, up to 20 m high and with
a base diameter of over 100 m, were located on the banks of the Bolshaya
and Malaya Almatinka, Esentaya (Vesnovka), and Aksay rivers. Currently,
most of the burial mounds are buried under the city's residential
buildings.
The Usun tribes that replaced the Sakas, judging by
the finds of archaeologists (sickles, grain grinders, simple irrigation
systems, etc.), were well acquainted with agriculture and had permanent
settlements.
Later, the territory of Semirechye was successively
included in the Western Turkic, Turgesh and Karluk Khaganates, the state
of the Karakhanid. Under the Karluks, settled agricultural settlements
began to appear in the foothills of the Zailiysky Alatau in places of
permanent wintering (kystau) and cities as headquarters of the nomadic
nobility.
In the 8th-10th centuries, there were several small
settlements on the territory of modern Alma-Ata, one of which was
presumably called Almatu (Almaty) and was located on the Great Silk
Road.
At the beginning of the 13th century, the Alma-Ata region,
like all of Semirechye, was subjected to the Mongol conquest. The events
of that time were described by the famous statesman Zahir ad-Din
Muhammad Babur, in his memoirs Alma-Ata is named among the destroyed
cities. In sources describing the events of the 14th century, the city
is called Almalyk. Thus, Sheref ad-Din Yazdi, describing Timur's
campaign in Moghulistan in 1390, writes that the Timurid army moved from
Tashkent to Issyk-Kul, then to Kok-Tobe, passed Almalyk and then through
Karatal to the Irtysh. By the end of the 16th century, only a small part
remained of Almaty, inhabited by Kazakhs of the Shapyrashty clan, the
dulat of the Senior Zhuz.
In September 2016, the 1000th
anniversary of the city was celebrated at the state level in Kazakhstan.
The foundation of the modern city was laid on February 4 (16), 1854,
when the Russian government decided to build a military fortification on
the left bank of the Malaya Almatinka River. The location of this
stronghold was chosen based on the goals of ensuring the security of
Russian commercial interests and trade routes from Orenburg to the
south.
From mid-1855, Russian settlers began to arrive at the
fortification. In 1858, Lieutenant Colonel G. A. Kolpakovsky arrived in
Verny (replacing Peremyshlsky as the head of the Alatavsky District),
and led the city for more than 20 years.
On April 11 (23), 1867,
the city of Verny became the center of the Semirechye region as part of
the Turkestan Governorate General.
On July 13 (25), 1867, the
Semirechye Cossack Host was created.
On May 28 (June 9), 1887, a
powerful earthquake occurred, killing 322 people and destroying 1,798
brick houses. Some buildings from that period have survived and are now
historical and architectural monuments. In memory of this tragedy, the
townspeople erected a chapel (demolished in 1927).
Since the
founding of the city, Muslims have lived here permanently: they
compactly settled in the Tatar settlement, now the area of modern
Astrakhan, Kazan, Krymskaya, Orenburgskaya, Ufimskaya, Tatarskaya
streets.
In 1897, 22,744 people lived in the city of Verny, the
distribution of the population by native language was as follows: Great
Russian (Russian) - 58.3%, Taranchi (Uyghur language) - 8.7%,
Kyrgyz-Kaisak - 8.2%, Sart - 7.0%, Little Russian (Ukrainian) - 5.5%,
Chinese (Dungan) - 5.4%, Tatar - 5.3%.
Most of the modern city of
Alma-Ata was part of the nomadic territory of the Chaprashtinskaya
volost of the Verny district, which was located between the Malaya and
Bolshaya Almatinka rivers from the Zailiysky Alatau mountains to the Ili
River.
By 1913, more than 41 thousand people lived in the city,
there were 59 industrial enterprises.
In 1918, Soviet power was established in Verny. The city and the region became part of the Turkestan Autonomous Republic (TASSR) within the RSFSR. On February 5, 1921, it was decided to rename Verny to Alma-Ata after the old name of the Almaty tract ("Yablonovoe"). In May 1929, the capital of the Kazakh ASSR within the RSFSR was moved from Kyzyl-Orda to Alma-Ata. This became an additional impetus for intensive development. Since 1936 (from the moment the Kazakh SSR was formed), Alma-Ata was the capital first of the Kazakh SSR, and then of independent Kazakhstan.
After 1941, due to the mass evacuation of factories and workers from
the European part of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War, Alma-Ata
turned from a city with underdeveloped industry into one of the largest
industrial centers of the Soviet Union. In 1941-1945 alone, the city's
industrial potential increased many times over. The city's economically
active population grew from 104,000 people in 1919 to 365,000 in 1968.
In 1967, the city had 145 enterprises, most of which were in the
light and food industries, which somewhat distinguished the city from
the typical Soviet bias toward heavy industry and the production of
capital goods. The main industries were food (36% of gross industrial
output), based mainly on abundant local fruit and vegetable raw
materials, and light industry (31%). The main factories and enterprises
of the food industry: meat canning, flour and cereals (with a pasta
factory), dairy, champagne, fruit and vegetable canning, tobacco
factories, confectionery, liquor and vodka factories, wine, brewery,
yeast, tea packing factory; light industry: textile and fur factories,
cotton spinning factories, knitwear, carpet, shoe, sewing factories,
printing and cotton textile factories. Heavy industry made up 33% of the
production volume and was represented by heavy engineering enterprises,
there were electrical engineering plants, foundry and mechanical plants,
car repair plants, bearing repair plants, building materials plants,
woodworking plants, reinforced concrete structures and building parts
plants, and a house-building plant. Alma-Ata was one of the first cities
in the USSR to introduce centralized traffic management (using the ACS
"City").
At the final stage of the Soviet period, Alma-Ata was
considered one of the "greenest" cities in the USSR and ranked third in
the all-Union rating in terms of greenery. This was facilitated by the
city's reasonable planning, abundance of green spaces, park areas and
fountains.
During the Soviet era, the citywide planning of
Alma-Ata was conceived in accordance with the concept of a "garden
city". It was imagined as a set of relatively small clusters of
microdistricts, which were separated from each other by green strips.
According to the builders' plan, such microdistricts were to have all
the necessary infrastructure for residents (kindergartens, shops, etc.).
Since 1991, the central areas of the city began to change
significantly, against the background of increased motorization, the
density of street traffic increased, which in turn negatively affected
the level of pollution in the city. Traffic jams in the morning and
evening hours became a common occurrence on the roads. After gaining
independence, the city's public infrastructure began to be updated, new
hotels, restaurants and shopping centers were built.
In 1997, by
decree of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan
Nazarbayev, the capital was moved to Akmola, renamed Astana six months
later. Alma-Ata was effectively pushed to the periphery of the country's
political life, which significantly affected the level of city
administration.
Today, Alma-Ata is the scientific, cultural,
industrial and financial center of the country. The National Bank of the
Republic of Kazakhstan is located here, as well as a number of
embassies, the remaining government agencies were transferred to Astana.
On July 1, 1998, a law on the special status of the city was adopted.
Nowadays, Alma-Ata is unofficially called the "Southern Capital".
In 2007, the city entered the top thirty most expensive cities in
the world for foreigners.
The ever-increasing number of vehicles
in the city is creating a growing problem for city residents. In the
summer of 2007, it was officially announced that 500,000 vehicles were
registered in Alma-Ata. There are fewer and fewer days when you can see
snow-capped peaks from the city. More often, you can only see a dirty
yellow fog covering the horizon. The leadership is concerned about this
problem, construction of interchanges and the Eastern Bypass Road has
begun with great delay, and efforts are being made to complete the
long-term Soviet construction project - the metro.
From the late
1990s to mid-2008, the city experienced a period of economic and
investment boom, as well as intensive construction.
In 2023, a
new general plan for the city until 2040 was approved, replacing the
general plan of 2002 due to the multiple increase in area and
population. The new plan plans to transition from a monocentric
development model to the creation of five new self-sufficient
polycentres in the city.
In the 10th-9th centuries BC, during the Bronze Age, the first
settlements of early farmers and cattle breeders appeared on the
territory of the modern city. This is evidenced by the traces of the
ancient settlements of Terenkara and Butakty, located on the territory
of the city. Ceramics, stone tools, bone and metal items were found.
7th century BC - the turn of the Common Era. During the Saka era,
the Alma-Ata region became the habitat of the Saka and later Usun
tribes. Numerous burial mounds and settlements remain from this time;
among them, the huge mounds of the nobility of the "Saka kings" stand
out. The most famous finds are the "Golden Man" from the Issyk mound,
the Zhalaulin treasure, the Kargaly diadem, the Semirechye "artistic
bronze" - lamps, altars, cauldrons. During the Saka and Usun era, the
territory of Alma-Ata becomes the center of an early state formation on
the territory of modern Kazakhstan.
VIII-X centuries AD — the
next stage of life on the territory of present-day Alma-Ata is
associated with the development of urban culture, the transition to
sedentarism, the development of agriculture and crafts, the appearance
of numerous urban settlements on the territory of Semirechye, the
excavations of which revealed numerous finds of ceramics, metal products
and bone.
In the X-XIV centuries, the cities located on the
territory of "Greater Alma-Ata" were drawn into the orbit of trade
relations that functioned on the Great Silk Road, and became trade and
craft centers, which, among other things, had a mint. This is evidenced
by the discovery of two silver dirhams dating back to the XIII century,
where the name Almatu is mentioned for the first time.
XV-XVIII
centuries — in connection with the fading of the Great Silk Road, a
degradation of urban life occurs in this territory. The original culture
of Semirechye (Zhetysu) is formed here.
November 5, 1850 - K.K.
Gutkovsky's failed attack on the Taigubek (Taychibek) mound in Kurty,
which controlled the Great Horde.
February 4, 1854 - the
foundation of the military fortification of the Russian army Vernoye in
the foothills of the Zailiysky Alatau.
By the fall of 1854, the
military fortification of Vernoye was mostly built. It was an irregular
pentagon surrounded by a palisade, one side of which was located along
the Malaya Almatinka River. Subsequently, the wooden palisade was
replaced by a wall made of adobe brick with loopholes.
In 1855,
the first settlers from Central Russia arrived, laying the foundation of
the Bolshaya and Malaya Almatinskaya stanitsas, as well as the Tatar
settlement. In the same year, the administrative center of the Alatau
District was moved to Vernoye.
In 1856, the State Garden was
founded. The first 5 bee colonies (hives) were brought in, which marked
the beginning of beekeeping in Semirechye.
In 1857, the first
water mill was built in the Tatar settlement area. In 1858, a brewery
appeared in the fortification.
On October 20-21, 1860, the
Uzungach battle took place, which ended with the victory of the combined
forces of the Russian army, Kazakhs and Kyrgyz over the Kokand troops.
In the same year, a post office and a hospital were opened in the
fortification, and smallpox vaccination of the local population began.
In the 1860s, Vernoye was the center of the Alatavsky district.
In November 1862, the construction of the Vernoye-Pishpek telegraph
line was completed.
On April 11, 1867, the Vernoye fortification
was renamed the city of Vernoye, the administrative center of the newly
created Semirechye region. On July 13 of the same year, by decree of
Emperor Alexander II, the Semirechye Cossack Army was established from
the 9th and 10th regimental districts of the Siberian Cossack Army.
In September 1867, a parish two-year school for boys and a one-year
school for girls were opened. The population of the city at that time
was 9 thousand people. On December 20, the Committee for the Development
of the City of Verny was formed.
In 1868, the first project plan
for the construction of the city was drawn up. The Semirechye Regional
Committee of the "Society for the Guardianship of Trade" was organized.
In 1869, the first printing house of the Semirechye Regional
Government was opened in Verny.
In March 1870, at the State
Garden, on the initiative of E. O. Baum, a school of gardening was
opened. The newspaper "Semirechye Regional Vedomosti" began to be
published.
In 1872, the first pharmacy and amateur theater were
opened in Verny.
In 1874, a peasant migrant Yegor Redko brought
apple trees from central Russia, which took root in the area. A hybrid
with a wild local apple tree became the ancestor of the famous Almaty
aport.
In 1876, a male and female gymnasium were opened in the
city.
On November 17, 1877, the city Duma and city administration
began to work. P. M. Zenkov became the first mayor.
In 1878, the
Meshchanskaya Administration was established. Meteorological
observations were organized.
In 1879, 43 streets in Verny were
given names. The Statistical Committee was organized, the first
population census was conducted. In October of the same year, the first
orphanage was opened, which was part of the Department of Institutions
of Empress Maria.
On May 27, 1887, an earthquake of enormous
destructive force occurred in Verny. Material losses amounted to over
2.5 million rubles. 1,799 stone and 839 wooden buildings were destroyed.
At the same time, a seismological point was organized.
In 1883,
the first street of the city, Torgovaya (now Zhibek-Zholy), was “paved
with stone”.
In 1894, a city grove was laid out under the name
Alferovskaya (now the Baum grove).
In 1897, a dentist’s office
was opened in Verny. In 1899, the construction of the main irrigation
ditch was completed.
In 1900, the first regional agricultural and
industrial exhibition of Semirechye was organized in Verny.
In
1902, the Semirechye branch of the Russian Geographical Society was
formed in the city. A. N. Vinokurov became the chairman of the board, V.
E. Nedzvetsky became the deputy chairman.
In 1909, a workshop was
opened in Verny, manufacturing winnowing machines, the first enterprise
in Semirechye to manufacture agricultural machinery.
In 1910,
factories were opened in the city: the cloth factory "Shakhvorostov with
sons and Pestov" and the cigarette factory "Pestov and Radionov". On
December 22 of the same year, another major earthquake occurred.
In 1912, the cartridge factory "Union" opened. In addition, a city
telephone connection appeared.
In 1913, the L. N. Tolstoy Library
opened in Verny. At that time, the city had 10 doctors, 10 paramedics, 3
dental technicians, and a city hospital with 25 beds.
From
January 2 to January 13, 1918, the Second Regional Congress of the
Soviets of Peasants' Deputies was held in Verny, where a decision was
made to transfer power in the city to the Soviets. On March 22, the
Council of People's Commissars of the Semirechye Region liquidated the
resettlement management bodies and decided to publish official decrees
in Russian and Kazakh. In May, the enterprises of the Nikita Pugasov and
Sons trading house were nationalized.
In 1918, the People's
Conservatory was founded in Verny.
In May 1919, a regional
gathering of akyns was held, in which Dzhambul Dzhabayev took an active
part.
At the beginning of 1920, the city had five concert halls
and a circus tent on Gostinodvorskaya Square. On May 24, 1920, on the
initiative of D. Furmanov, Kazakh pedagogical courses were opened in
Verny.
On February 5, 1921, at a meeting of regional and city
organizations, the city of Verny was renamed Alma-Ata.
On the
night of July 8-9, 1921, a giant mud and rock flow fell on the city
along the Malaya Almatinka River, destroying 65 and damaging 82
residential buildings, 18 mills, 177 outbuildings, 2 tanneries, and a
tobacco factory.
On March 28, 1927, the VI All-Kazakhstan
Congress of Soviets decided to move the capital from Kyzyl-Orda to
Alma-Ata.
In 1929, the capital of the Kazakh ASSR was moved from
Kyzyl-Orda to Alma-Ata, and the Kazakh Theater was also moved from
there.
In 1930, a shoe factory was established in the city.
On May 1, 1930, the first train from Moscow arrived in Alma-Ata. The
Republican Public Library named after A.S. Pushkin was founded.
In 1931, the Kazakh State Medical Institute was founded in Alma-Ata.
In 1932, the main botanical garden was founded.
In March
1932, the sewing factory No. 1 was put into operation in the city. The
Alma-Ata Music College named after P.I. Tchaikovsky was founded.
In 1933, the Kazakh Musical Theater was organized, which laid the
foundation for the opera theater. The Russian Drama Theater opened. The
fermentation plant and the XX Years of October plant were put into
operation.
From June 12 to 20, 1934, the first congress of
writers of Kazakhstan was held in Alma-Ata. In the same year, a theater
technical school was opened. The Alma-Ata Mechanical Plant was put into
operation. The Kazakh State University named after S. Kirov, the Uyghur
Musical Theatre, and the Mining and Metallurgical Institute (now the
Technical Academy) were established. The first housing complex was put
into operation.
In 1935, the first stage of the Central Electric
Power Station with a capacity of 3,000 kilowatts was launched in the
city. The Gorky Park of Culture and Recreation was opened. The Kazakh
State Philharmonic Society named after Dzhambul was founded. A Russian
opera troupe was created. Five taxis appeared in the city.
In
1936, zoning was carried out in Alma-Ata, and three districts were
formed: Leninsky, Sovetsky, and Frunzensky. In the same year, a fruit
canning plant, a tobacco and boot factories, a brick factory, and a
dairy plant were put into operation. The Zelenstroy Trust was created,
the T. G. Shevchenko Art Gallery and the surgical building of the city
hospital were opened, and a zoological garden was organized.
In
1938, a theater and art school was founded, transformed into an art
school in 1953, and a fur factory was put into operation.
In
1939, a ball bearing plant was put into operation.
In 1941, a new
sewing factory began operating.
After the start of the Great
Patriotic War, in July 1941, the 316th Rifle Division was formed, with
Major General I. V. Panfilov appointed as its commander. For heroism and
courage in battles with German troops near Moscow, the division was
transformed into the 8th Guards Rifle Division. On November 23, 1941,
the division was named after Major General Panfilov. In December 1941,
the 38th Rifle Division was formed in Alma-Ata, which for courage and
heroism became known as the 73rd Guards Stalingrad Rifle Division.
On November 7, 1941, the opening of the new building of the Opera
and Ballet Theater took place. The Alma-Ata Film Studio of Feature Films
was opened. A cotton spinning mill, founded on the basis of equipment
evacuated from the Reutov cotton spinning mill, and a knitwear factory
on the basis of equipment from the Ivanovo knitwear factory evacuated to
Alma-Ata, also went into operation.
In 1942, a meat-packing
plant, mechanical and accessories factories, bakery No. 1, and a
confectionery factory began operating in the city. The tram line
connecting the Alma-Ata-2 station with the Alma-Ata-1 station was
extended. The "Kozhkombinat" artel was created, transformed in 1953 into
the Alma-Ata leather footwear factory, and then into a tannery. The
Alma-Ata Heavy Machinery Plant, founded on the basis of the tool and
forging and pressing shops of the Lugansk Locomotive Plant, and the S.
M. Kirov Machine-Building Plant, founded on the basis of the
torpedo-making plant evacuated from Makhachkala, were put into operation
as operating enterprises.
In 1943, the tea-packing and cloth
factories were put into operation; the latter's equipment was evacuated
from the Moscow cloth factory. A movement for the creation of a special
fund to help the Red Army unfolded in Alma-Ata. The fund was formed due
to excess production, 12 million rubles were allocated to it.
In
1944, the foundry and mechanical plant was put into operation. In the
same year, the Alma-Ata State Conservatory was founded.
In 1945,
a theater for young spectators was opened in the city.
On June 2,
1946, the Presidium of the Supreme Council, the Council of Ministers of
the Republic and the Central Committee of the Communist Party
(Bolsheviks) of Kazakhstan issued a decree "On the establishment of the
Kazakh Academy of Sciences in Alma-Ata". The same year, the Mining and
Physical Observatory was founded.
In 1950, a champagne factory
and a leather goods factory were put into operation. In the same year, a
monument to Amangeldy Imanov was erected in the city.
In 1952, an
enamelware factory and a furniture factory began operating in Alma-Ata.
In 1953, Hydroelectric Power Station No. 1 was commissioned in the
city. The Mining and Chemical Plant was founded, transformed in 1955
into the Leather and Shoes Factory, and in 1959 into Shoe Factory No. 2.
In 1955, a knitwear factory was put into operation.
In 1957,
a new building of the Government House, the House of Political
Education, and the building of the Academy of Sciences of Kazakhstan
were built. The first stage of the Central Republican Stadium was put
into operation.
In 1959, the first stage of the Alma-Ata TV
Center was put into operation. The Alma-Ata Tobacco Plant was created on
the basis of the Alma-Ata Tobacco Factory and Farm Plant. In the same
year, Hydroelectric Power Station No. 2 was put into operation.
In 1960, a monument to Abai was erected. In the same year, the
wide-screen cinema "Tselinny" was put into operation. A sewing and
haberdashery factory was established.
On June 18, 1961, the
Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy of Kazakhstan opened
in Alma-Ata. A house-building plant was organized on the basis of a
reinforced concrete plant.
In 1962, the settlements of Malaya
Stanitsa and Port Arthur of the Ili district were included within the
city limits. New buildings of the Kazakh State Academic Theater named
after Auezov, the Central State Archive of the Republic of Kazakhstan,
the city Palace of Pioneers, the Detsky Mir department store, the House
of Unions, and the Institute of Geological Sciences of the Academy of
Sciences of Kazakhstan were put into operation.
In 1963, the
Alma-Ata-Frunze-Tashkent radio relay line began to operate, which was
connected to Moscow in 1966.
In 1964, the buildings of the
Frunzensky District Polyclinic, the Tselinny panoramic cinema for 1,600
seats, and the energy engineering technical school were built.
In
1964, the Kyzyl-Tu plastics processing production association was
founded.
In 1965, new buildings for the Institute of Physical
Education and the Kazakh Research Institute of Eye Diseases were
constructed, and the first stage of the cotton mill was commissioned.
The city is called Almaty by the Kazakh and Russian government
bodies; in Russia, the name Alma-Ata is still used (however, both names
are used in the media). The name Almaty has recently been used on
Russian-language maps published by Roskartografiya.
Etymology
Almaty is translated from Kazakh as "Apple", while Alma-Ata is a set of
Kazakh words meaning "apple" (alma) and "grandfather" (ata). According
to Bauyrzhan Sakov, Alma-Ata is an artificial name invented by party
workers from Tashkent at a meeting of the Presidium of the Central
Executive Committee of the Turkestan ASSR (TurkCEC) in what was then
Verny on February 5, 1921. According to the resolution adopted at this
meeting, the city of Verny began to bear a new name - Alma-Ata. The
responsible secretary of the Semirechye regional committee of the
Communist Party of Turkestan, member of the regional revolutionary
committee Alfred Lepa summed up the meeting of the TurkCEC: "In
commemoration of the historical beginnings of the liberation of the
Muslim poor for Semirechye, rename the city of Verny to the city of
Alma-Ata, after the name of the area in which it is located."
According to Bauyrzhan Sakov, the assertions that "Alma-Ata" is
translated from Kazakh as "Grandfather of Apples" or "Apple Grandfather"
are not true. The phrase "Alma-Ata" is incorrect from the point of view
of the Kazakh language, both morphologically and semantically - it is
just a set of words "Apple-Grandfather", a hybrid of two Kazakh words
that cannot be translated semantically.
Almaty's climate is continental and is characterized by the influence
of mountain-valley circulation, which is especially evident in the
northern part of the city, located directly in the transition zone of
the mountain slopes to the plain.
The average long-term air
temperature is +10 °C, the coldest month (January) -4.7 °C, the warmest
month (July) +23.8 °C. Frosts begin on average on October 14 and end on
April 18. Steady frosts last an average of 67 days - from December 19 to
February 23. Weather with a temperature of over +30 °C is observed on
average 36 days a year. In the center of Almaty, as in any large city,
there is a "heat island" - the contrast of the average daily temperature
between the northern and southern outskirts of the city is 3.8% and 0.8
°C in the coldest and 2.2% and 2.6 °C in the hottest five-day period.
Therefore, frosts in the city center begin on average 7 days later and
end 3 days earlier than on the northern outskirts.
Alma-Ata as a whole is characterized by the presence of a fairly extensive hydrographic network consisting of natural rivers, their branches, canals and reservoirs. This is facilitated by a number of factors: the foothill location of the city, a fairly large annual amount of precipitation on its territory (600-650 mm), the melting of high-mountain glaciers in the summer and, of course, anthropogenic factors in the form of canal construction. The Bolshaya Almatinka and Malaya Almatinka rivers flow through the city, as well as their tributaries - Esentay (Vesnovka), Remizovka, Zharbulak (Kazachka), Karasu. All the rivers of the city are mudflow hazardous and all of them belong to the closed drainage basin of Lake Balkhash. Their waters are used to meet the industrial, economic and recreational needs of the city. A characteristic feature of the urban landscape of Almaty is the presence of an extensive network of irrigation ditches.
The structure of the soil cover of Almaty is completely determined by
the vertical zonality of the Zailiyskiy Alatau — with a change in
altitude, the natural and climatic zones and belts change, and,
accordingly, the soil and vegetation cover. Although the Medeo tract
almost adjoins the upper mid-mountain meadow-forest zone, it is located
in the meadow-forest-steppe zone with rich leached chernozems, dark gray
forest-steppe and mountain forest-meadow soils, provided with natural
moisture. Below is the steppe foothill zone with the following belts
(subzones): the belt of high foothills (counters) with chernozems (from
1000 to 1200-1400 m) and the belt of foothill dark chestnut soils (from
750 to 1000 m). Chernozems occupy approximately the lower boundary along
Al-Farabi Avenue to the village of Tausamaly (Kamenka), have a fully
developed or even increased profile and are one of the most fertile
soils in the world (8-13% humus and other nutrients). Even the first
researchers of the Tien Shan (P. P. Semenov, N. A. Severtsov, A. N.
Krasnov) identified a special cultural or garden belt here. It was here
in the second half of the 19th century that the breeder N. T. Moiseyev
cultivated the Almaty Aport - a variety of apple tree that became one of
the city's calling cards.
From Al-Farabi Avenue, and in places
significantly lower (approximately to Raimbek Avenue) there are chestnut
soils, which are the area of alluvial fans, mainly dark chestnut,
which are the main soils of the city.
The northern part of the
city is distinguished by very special natural conditions and is
represented by a foothill sloping plain, dissected by deeply cut river
valleys and ravines. This zone is a foothill desert steppe, composed of
a thick layer of loess-like loams, underlain at a considerable depth by
sandy-pebble deposits. With the transition of alluvial fans to the
foothill sloping plain, a strip with close groundwater (saz strip)
stands out, the approximate boundary of the saz strip begins from
Raimbek Avenue, and in places significantly lower. Zonal soils here are
meadow chestnut and meadow gray soils, fertile enough for cultivating
many crops.
Almaty has a rather complicated environmental situation due to its
location in a foothill basin. Like Athens and Los Angeles, which have
similar relief characteristics, Almaty suffers from severe air
pollution, a shortage of construction sites within the city limits, the
desire of the population to live closer to the city center rather than
on its outskirts, some overcrowding, and mass migration of the rural
population to the city. The city was initially designed by designers for
400 thousand residents, but the population has already exceeded two
million people.
A gray smog constantly hangs over the city. More
than 80% of the air pollution in the city comes from motor vehicles.
There are 800 thousand cars in Almaty, and their number is growing every
day. Every year, these cars emit about 250-260 thousand tons of harmful
waste into the city's air. Thus, each resident of the city emits more
than 200 kg of harmful substances.
According to the international
rating company "NYC Partnership Consulting", in 2010, the city of
Alma-Ata was among the dirtiest cities in the world. Also, according to
the American human resources management company "ORC Worldwide", in
2015, the city took 4th place in the top 5 worst cities in the world.
The transfer of the capital to Astana allowed to reduce the
disproportionate migration pressure on Alma-Ata somewhat, sending almost
300 thousand internal migrants to the new capital, but it did not
completely solve the problem. The city feels a shortage of construction
sites. According to the President of Kazakhstan Nazarbayev, he has
already received many proposals from construction companies to demolish
certain objects and build new complexes, housing and offices on these
sites, move universities, move Kazakhfilm, the military institute, the
hospital, etc. But Nazarbayev proposed to ban any construction in Almaty
and move all projects and major development to the suburbs and satellite
cities around the capital.
On December 19, 1981, the city's millionth resident was born, and on June 21, 2022, its two millionth resident was born. The official estimate of the city's population as of November 2023 was 2,217,674 people. The city is multinational: Kazakhs (61.45%), Russians (24.31%), Uyghurs (5.42%); there are also Koreans (1.81%), Tatars (1.31%) and others (5.71%) (2020, estimate). Despite its relatively young age, the demographic processes in the city are complex and diverse, which largely reflects its diverse national composition. A characteristic feature of the modern city is its multilingualism. Russian and Kazakh are widely used in the city.
In 2017, Almaty's GRP per capita was 7% higher than that of the
capital.
A major transport hub: railways, highways, airport.
According to the Statistics Agency of Kazakhstan, in 2008, Almaty's GDP
reached 2.9 trillion tenge (19.9 billion dollars), or 2.2 million tenge
(14.8 thousand dollars) per capita. Until the early 1990s, the city's
economy was based on food, light and heavy industry. The bulk of
products were sold in the city itself (whose population exceeded one
million residents in 1981), on the market of the Kazakh SSR, and in
other republics of the USSR. After the collapse of the USSR, the rupture
of inter-republican economic ties and the decline of industry, so-called
flea markets with Chinese consumer goods, bazaars, and the so-called
shuttle trade became widespread in the city (especially in 1991-1996).
During this period, the city's economy began to focus on the consumption
of cheap imports from China. The standard of living of the majority of
the population falls sharply. Only after 1997, a period of economic
recovery began in Alma-Ata, the city was engulfed by a real investment
boom, and a period of intensive mortgage construction began. The
headquarters of the People's Bank, Kazkommertsbank, Kaspi Bank and other
major banks of Kazakhstan are located in Alma-Ata. There is a
confectionery factory "Rakhat", a cognac wine factory "Bacchus", a trout
farm, an ostrich farm.
As of 2020, the level of gasification of
Alma-Ata is 98.8%.
Almaty won the right to host the Asian Winter Games in 2011. A whole
complex of modern arenas was built for the Games in Almaty: an ice
stadium with a 400-meter track, ski and biathlon stadiums, a new ski
resort, 90- and 120-meter ski jumps with stands for 20 thousand
spectators, a bobsleigh track; the official closing ceremony of the
Games was also held here.
The city put forward its candidacy to
host the Winter Olympics in 2014, but did not pass the first round of
selection due to air pollution.
From January 29 to February 8,
2017, Almaty hosted the 2017 Winter Universiade.
Alma-Ata regularly hosts local, regional and international cycling
events. Every Sunday, a traditional bike ride is held along the main
streets of the city.
Tour of Almaty (English: Tour of Almaty
2013; Kazakh: Альматы Туы 2013) is an international one-day cycling race
under the auspices of the International Cycling Union (UCI), which is
held annually in October. "Tour of Almaty" is held in category 1.2,
which is how a one-day group race of the second category is classified
according to UCI rules. The distance of one lap is 31 kilometers. The
memorandum on holding a one-day road race Tour of Almaty was signed
between the Akimat of Almaty, UCI and the Kazakhstan Cycling Federation
in 2013.
In Soviet times, the leading football club of the Kazakh SSR was
Almaty "Kairat". The team played in the top league of the USSR
championship for many years. The most famous players of Kairat are:
Sergey Kvochkin, who scored a goal for the Brazilian national team at
the Maracana (1961), and Yevgeny Yarovenko, the Olympic champion of
Seoul (1988). Players of the Kazakhstan national football team Ruslan
Baltiev, Rafael Urazbakhtin, Sergey Kirov played for the team.
In
the 2000s, the city's football traditions were developed by the futsal
team MFC Kairat (founded in 1995). Over the years, the club was headed
by such specialists as Anatoly Ionkin (Kazakhstan), Sergey Belokurov
(Russia), Paulo Augusto (Brazil), Faisal Saab (Brazil).
The club
holds home games of the championship at the Kairat Sports Complex, built
with money from patrons. Over the past few years, Kairat has
consistently won the national championship. With the help of Brazilian
legionnaires, MFC Kairat successfully performs in the UEFA Cup, where it
was twice among the top four teams in Europe (2006, 2008).
In
August 2018, the FISU Futsal World Championship among students was held
in Almaty.
In Almaty, the media are very widely represented. These are 13 public television channels, 12 FM radio stations, up to fifty local Russian-language newspapers, as well as two dozen Kazakh ones, in addition, a large number of magazines are published. Several companies offer their services in the cable and satellite television market, there are many Internet providers and private printing houses.