Almaty — Stories — Places of Charm

Almaty is Kazakhstan’s largest city and it was also its political capital until 1997, when the government moved to more centrally-located Astana (I did visit Astana in the same trip and a post with my impressions is coming up soon, btw!).

Kazakhstan is the size of whole of Western Europe and Almaty is literally at one of its corners, right on the foothills of the Tian Shan mountain range, which limits with Kyrgyzstan and China. The view of the Tian Shan’s snowy peaks is, actually, the first sight greeting visitors arriving at Almaty’s international airport (you can find also my review of Air Astana’s flight from Europe here).

These mountains play, actually, an important role in the life of Almaty’s residents and I had a chance to get a taster of them, but, since we have only 24 hours in the city, let’s go on a quick city tour first!

A walking tour of central Almaty

If you have ever been to any of the capitals of the former Soviet republics, some parts of Almaty will look familiar to you. Although Almaty has been settled for many centuries, it was during the Soviet period that the city grew to become one of Central Asia’s largest cities and that it got most of the landmarks I visited during this tour.

What is interesting about Almaty’s architecture, though, is that, interspersed with the classical Soviet-era styles (like the Opera palace depicted above), there are many elements that draw from local Kazakh culture.

As an example, these intricate motifs (right side picture), inspired in traditional Kazakh art, which decorate the facade of quite a few buildings in central Almaty. Judging by the type of construction, I’d say these are from around the 1970s.

Also remarkable is that most of central Almaty is laid out in a grid-like pattern, with rather wide streets intersecting at right angles. There is also quite a lot of greenery, since the city is not very densely built and there is ample space between buildings.

Our tour took place on a rainy Autumn day, which made for a nice walk in the cool (but not too cold!) air. I hope these pictures capture a little bit of the city atmosphere, like here below, at the head of Panfilov Street, one of the main pedestrianised avenues in Almaty.

A ride in the Almaty metro

Let’s start by saying that the metro (subway) in Almaty is rather limited, in fact it is not, properly speaking, a transport network, because, as of 2024, it has just one line.

What’s interesting here is that, while it was inaugurated in 2011 and part of it has been built even later, the style is unmistakably Soviet. This is not because its engineers suffered from some sort of nostalgia, but because the design and construction of the Almaty metro project actually started in the 1980s.

Apparently, every Soviet city qualified to get a metro system from the moment it reached a population of 1M. Almaty got to that magical figure (after some gerrymandering with the city limits, we were told during the excursion) only as the Soviet Union was starting to crumble. Plans were laid out, but the Soviet collapse and the chaotic years that ensued meant that the project was put on a very slow track, until it was restarted in the early 2000s. So, when it was time to get back to work on the metro, the same blueprints were used (why not?).

It is well worth taking a ride on the Almaty metro just to have a peek at the different mosaics and decor elements you find at several points.

But let’s first have a look at the metro map to get an idea of the extension of the system and, one thing of note: see the line of mountains on a blue background at the top of the map? This shows the Tian Shan mountain range, which Almaty citizens use always as a reference point when navigating their city. The mountains here help with orientation, the same way that the sea or rivers play in other cities as an geographical anchor element.

The other interesting element are the mosaics and mural art that you find all over the metro. These depict mostly Kazakh themes. Here above you can see a glass mural dedicated to Aport apple, which is a local apple variety which has become a source of local pride and a sort of symbol of Almaty.

But what I found most interesting are the many mosaics throughout the metro system that allude to local Kazakh culture (again those tile patterns!) as well as the history of Central Asia and the Silk Road.

See for example these depictions of ancient cities at Zhibek Zholy (Жібек Жолы) station. How many monuments and places are you able to recongize in this map of the Silk Road?

The city baths

Bath houses play an important role in Turkic culture (Kazakhs are a people of Turkic origin), so it’s not a surprise that another building of reference in Almaty is the Arasan public bath (today known as the “Arasan Wellness & SPA”).

It was built in the 1980s in response to Tashkent, in neighbouring Uzbekistan (and a rival for urban primacy in Central Asia) having built earlier its own bath complex.

It’s a rather modern interpretation of the traditional public bath concept with plenty of interesting decorative details built in.

Panfilov Park, Ascension Cathedral and Memorial of Glory

This is sort of Almaty’s “central park”. Although it is not huge, it has several of the city’s landmarks in it, such as the Orthodox cathedral of the Ascension, which was built in wood and using a rather innovative (for the time) earthquake-resistant approach that has allowed to survive undamaged several episodes of seismic activity.

The park is named after Panfilov’s “28 Guardsmen”, a mostly-Kazakh unit in the Soviet army that suffered very high losses while defending Moscow in 1941.

Like every city in the former Soviet Union, Almaty has here, as well, its WW2 memorial with its eternal flame. There is also a military history museum next to the park, although there was no time to visit it.

The Green Bazaar

The Green Bazaar is located less than five minutes walk away from Panfilov Park and it is one of the must-see places in Almaty, if only to relish in the broad diversity of flavours and smells here. It is also a good spot to taste and buy traditional Kazakh produce, such as the famous Aport apples or Irimshik, a sort of brownish soft cheese.

The bazaar is very well organized by product category (dried fruit, pickled food, dairy, meat…) and by ethnicity. So, it seems that every national group specializes in one type of produce. For example, we were told dried food vendors are mostly Uzbek, while the dairy section is mostly taken care of by Turkish women.

There is also a Korean section (see below). Many ethnic Koreans were deported to Kazakhstan from the Far Eastern territories of Russia on Stalin’s orders around the time of WW2 and they are now a sizeable minority in Kazakhstan. Because of the lack of the original ingredients in their new homeland, Koreans adapted some of their dishes to the local produce and tastes.

An evening walk through Almaty

Days are short in Autumn, so part of the walking tour took place in the evening, which is something that has its own appeal.

Here is a view of two landmarks of 1970s brutalist architecture in Kazakhstan. On the right is the building that used to house the Ministry of Geology, a pretty important institution in a country that derives much of its wealth from natural resources!

The building with the crown-like top to the left is the Kazakhstan Hotel. Arguably the top hotel in town for many years and, still today, one of the city’s main hospitality establishments.

At just over 100m high, the Kazakhstan Hotel was also, at the time of its construction, the tallest building in the country. It was also built with seismic activity in mind and its structure is said to be able to stand earthquakes of up to 9.0 in the Richter scale. In fact, the structure was successfully tested during its construction with a special machine that shook it up simulating a strong earthquake, with the chief architect and engineers on top (skin in the game!).

During our walk we were also able to see several of the statues scattered around central Almaty, with very different themes. For example, here on top you can see a fountain that represents the Kazakh horoscope (similar to the Chinese one) and, below, a statue dedicated to Soviet-era rock star Victor Tsoi.

Another iconic hotel in town is the Almaty Hotel, which was has a surprisingly modern-looking design despite having been built in the 1960s (the interior has been renovated but the structure remains the same).

Curious historical fact: the first director of the hotel, Rakhimzhan Koshkarbayev, was the Soviet soldier that hoisted the red flag over the Reichstag during the Battle of Berlin, in 1945 (the iconic photo was a later reenactment, though).

The entrance of the Almaty Hotel is also decorated with these beautiful mosaic depicting scenes from Kazakh traditional tales.

More street art, here in an underground passage. Note, again, the Aport apple theme!

And, here, with this picture of the Kazakh Academy of Sciences, that we conclude our tour of the city centre. Before turning to the outdoor experience in the mountains, though, a word about the excellent tour guide, provided by Walking Almaty.

Shymbulak ski resort

Almaty is surrounded by great outdoors, including some world-class natural parks. You don’t even need to go as far as Altyn-Emel or Charyn Canyon (two truly unique national parks which are within driving range of Almaty, but which are, perhaps, best visited with an overnight stay), truly Alpine nature is a short taxi and cable-car ride away from the city center!

Shymbulak, is a suburban ski resort. The base station of the Shymbulak cable car is barely a 15min drive from Almaty city center (provided there is no traffic!).

The cable car will take you in a few minutes to a height of more than 2,200 meters of altitude. In Winter this is where the skiing area starts, but you can visit year round for the mountain sights, trekking (it was rainy and cloudy when we visited though) or to enjoy the restaurants and services (more on this in the food section further down).

These mountains are very popular with Almaty residents, who come here for a bit of outdoors sports and to breathe the fresh mountain air.

It is in this valley, half way up the mountain, that you find the Medeu skating ring, the highest in the world of its type. This sports facility became famous during Soviet times, because local conditions of altitude and prevailing low winds enabled many ice skating world records to be set here!

We arrived just in time to experience the first snow of the season!

Where to stay in Almaty

Intercontinental Hotel Almaty

This is a nice, modern hotel. The rooms (and bathroom) are big. The staff were also very friendly and helpful.

I also enjoyed the breakfast very much, since it include a broad variety of sweet and salty foods as well as international and Kazakh specialities, including different types of local cheese as well as camel and horse milk and dairy!

Where to eat in Almaty

Here are some nice options to eat out in Almaty and Shymbulak. It is mostly international cuisine (Italian and Turkish mostly), so don’t expect super typical Kazakh dishes here (you will have to wait to my upcoming post about Astana for this!), but all of them were pretty good and you can’t go wrong with them.

Monte Bambini, Shymbulak

This is a cozy mountain restaurant next to the base station of the Shymbulak cable car. Here you can find a mix of European and Central Asian specialities.

Big Chefs, Shymbulak

Big Chefs is also in Shymbulak but at the other end of the cable car, up in the mountain.

Turkish cuisine is the main focus here. The mezze, for example, were really good and the portions quite generous. There is also a nice dessert selection.

Aurora Café, Almaty

This is an upmarket Italian restaurant in central Almaty (with a nice aeronautical touch by the entrance!).

It’s got a pretty good selection of dishes, which include also some Central Asian shashlik, of course, besides more international fare.

And last, but not least, big thanks to the team at Air Astana, the main airline of Kazakhstan, which worked hard to make sure we experienced the best of Almaty during our short but intense stay!