Discover Almaty, Almaty, Kazakhstan

We really didn’t know anything about Almaty before we arrived. In fact, it was a last-minute addition to our trip through Central Asia. Having arrived quite unprepared we ended up finding a lot of things to do in and around this bustling city. We really enjoyed discovering the sites of Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Here are our recommendations for sites you should consider on your next trip to Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan.

For much of Kazakhstan’s history, nomads roamed across its high elevation steppes. It is believed that it was on those steppes that horses were first domesticated. Much later, farming became popular as people settled into towns and villages.

In the late 1800s, Russian czars moved in on the fertile lands and changed the crops from food to cotton, forcing many of the local Kazak farmers to move. The Russian take over resulted in the death of 1.5 million Kazaks. During Soviet times even more Russians moved in until there were more Russians in Kazakhstan than Kazaks. Eventually though as with all of Central Asia, Kazakhstan gained independence and went about repairing the country. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).