Almaty

Almaty occupies a broad plain at the foot of the Trans-Ili Alatau, its grid of wide boulevards and tree-lined avenues stretching from some 700 metres above sea level at the city’s northern edge to nearly 900 metres as it presses against the mountain slopes. Two streams, the Big and Small Almaty rivers, descend from the peaks, their channels dissecting the city before spilling onto the steppes. With more than two million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, Almaty ranks as the second-largest city in Central Asia and the fourth within the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Founded in 1854 as a Russian military post on the left bank of the Almaty River, the settlement acquired the name Verny before assuming the Soviet designation Alma-Ata. Frequent earthquakes shaped early urban development: the quake of 1887 destroyed almost eighteen hundred brick houses and claimed over three hundred lives. In its reconstruction the city adopted Russian Revival forms under architects such as Paul Gourdet, whose designs for civic colleges and merchants’ residences blended ornate detailing with local timber. A wooden cathedral by Andrei Zenkov, built in 1907 from Tien Shan spruce, withstood a subsequent tremor of intensity ten and today stands restored as one of the tallest wooden structures worldwide.

During the Second World War, industries and institutions moved here beyond reach of the front, bringing universities, hospitals and a multicultural workforce that included Slavs, Uyghurs and Koreans. The city served as capital of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic from 1929, and briefly of independent Kazakhstan until 1997, when the government relocated the seat north to Akmola (now Astana). Despite ceding that status, Almaty retains autonomy as a “city of republican significance” and counts eight administrative districts within its boundaries.

On an economic level, Almaty generates roughly one-fifth of Kazakhstan’s GDP, hosting the nation’s largest financial institutions—Halyk Bank, Kaspi Bank—and the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange. Corporate towers share the skyline with remnants of Soviet modernism: the Hotel Kazakhstan of 1977 and the Palace of the Republic, completed in 1970. A recent project, the Almaty Financial District and Esentai Park, will cluster high-rise offices and the nation’s first Ritz-Carlton in a mixed-use tower of thirty-seven floors, designed by the team behind New York’s 7 World Trade Center.

Urban transport includes the Almaty Metro, inaugurated in 2011, alongside an extensive network of buses, trolleybuses and regional rail at Almaty-2 station. Almaty International Airport, fifteen kilometres northeast of the centre, handles over nine million passengers per year, connecting the city to destinations across Europe, Asia and beyond. Domestic carriers link every regional capital, while Air Astana maintains its headquarters here. A bicycle-sharing scheme, Almaty-bike, has operated since 2016, and intercity bus terminals serve routes into Kyrgyzstan and China.

Cultural life in Almaty stems from its position on the Silk Road and the presence of Russian intellectuals exiled here in the nineteenth century. The Abai Kazakh State Opera and Ballet Theatre, founded in 1934, anchors a performance scene alongside the Auezov Russian Drama Theatre, the English-language KELT within KIMEP University and the experimental Artishock. Museums cluster around Zenkov Cathedral in the Park of 28 Panfilov Guardsmen—a tribute to infantry heroes who delayed a German advance on Moscow. There, the central state museum charts Kazakh history from prehistoric nomads to contemporary urban life; the Kasteyev State Museum of Arts preserves works by Kazakh masters alongside European paintings donated by Moscow and Leningrad; and a series of specialized collections examine musical instruments, military history, railways and notable local figures such as playwright Mukhtar Auezov or composer Nurgisa Tlendiev.

Green space defines much of the urban experience. In summer fountains spout along pedestrian promenades, their irrigation network tied into mountain runoff. Each spring the city celebrates a “Day of Fountains” when over one hundred water features resume after winter dormancy. Urban parks—the First President’s Park with its dendrological collections, the Panfilov Park beneath Zenkov Cathedral—provide shaded avenues and solemn monuments. Around the edges of town, the Ile-Alatau National Park begins in forested foothills, offering trails that ascend to alpine meadows.

Almaty functions as a centre for winter sports. Medeu, the outdoor skating rink perched at 1 691 metres, earned the nickname “factory of records” after athletes set over a hundred world marks in thin mountain air on its meticulously maintained ice. Higher still, Shymbulak ski resort, at 2 200 metres, opens from November until May, hosting night skiing on the world’s highest illuminated slopes. Big Almaty Lake, at 2 511 metres, lies fifteen kilometres by road; its turquoise surface reflects peaks exceeding four thousand metres and serves as a crucial drinking-water reservoir.

The climate registers wide extremes. Summers bring average July highs of 23.8 °C, while January lows average –4.7 °C. Frosts typically begin by mid-October and yield to spring winds around mid-April. Yet remnant snow can fall into May—as late as 17 June in 1987—and the city’s centre, buffered by its heat island, delays frost onset by about a week compared with northern suburbs. Annual precipitation totals 650–700 mm, with more than a third arriving in April and May. Wind most often blows from the southeast, reaching speeds above 15 m/s on a dozen or so days each year.

Landmarks amount to a survey of Almaty’s layers. Ascension Cathedral, with its bright façade of custard and icing-sugar hues, survived early earthquakes to resume Orthodox services in 1997. Nearby stand the elegant St Nicholas Cathedral, the Central Mosque with its marble interior, and the revived Sophia Cathedral in former monastic grounds. A cable car links the city to Kök Töbe hill, where a fun fair and restaurants perch beside a TV tower rising to 371.5 metres—a steel structure engineered for seismic resilience and visible by night under searchlights.

Festivals and events mark the calendar. Nauryz Myrami, celebrated around 21 March, observes the spring equinox with family meals and street festivities. The Almaty Marathon and an Indie Film Festival occur each September. In winter, the Medeu Valley hosted the 2011 Asian Winter Games and the 2017 Winter Universiade; the city also sought the 2022 Winter Olympics, underlining its suitability for international competition. In public health, the Alma-Ata Primary Healthcare Conference of 1978 shaped global policy on community medicine.

Education, long a part of the city’s identity, centers on Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and institutions such as the Kazakh-British Technical University, International Information Technology University and Narxoz University. These attract students from across Central Asia.

Almaty’s culture extends into its very soil. Wild apples (Malus sieversii) grow in surrounding foothills, the genetic forebears of modern varieties. This native fruit lends its name to the city—alma meaning apple—and evokes a landscape where nomadic herdsmen once grazed flocks beneath apple-spangled woodlands. Today the “Southern Capital” blends Soviet legacies, global finance and emerging innovation, its high-rise precincts abutting verdant parks and its mountain trails just beyond the urban edge. In the course of more than a century and a half, Almaty has become both a link to Kazakhstan’s past and a platform for its evolving future.