Almaty, Commercial center in Almaty, Kazakhstan
Almaty is a city in southeastern Kazakhstan that spreads along the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau at about 785 meters elevation, surrounded by snowcapped peaks. Wide avenues lined with trees run through the center, where Soviet-era buildings stand beside office towers and shopping malls.
The settlement began in 1854 as a Russian fort called Zailiyskoye and later became a trading center for goods from Central Asia. It served as the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 until 1997 under different names including Alma-Ata, before the government moved to Astana.
Locals walk in Panfilow Park and spend weekends hiking in the foothills, mixing Soviet habits with a modern coffee culture. You hear Russian alongside Kazakh in cafés, and street markets sell beshbarmak and samsa that people eat daily at home and at work.
The metro connects major districts along a north-south line with 9 stations and is the easiest way to move around inside the city. Taxis and minibuses run everywhere, but street signs are often written only in Kazakh, which can make finding your way more difficult.
An earthquake in 1911 destroyed nearly all wooden houses in the city, but the wooden Zenkov Cathedral survived without a single nail in its construction. The Medeu ice rink sits at 1,691 meters (5,545 feet) and uses a cooling system that maintains natural ice across more than 10,000 square meters (107,639 square feet).
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