Kazakhstan

Almaty (population 2 million, the former capital) sits below the Tian Shan mountains — snow-capped peaks visible from the city centre, the Medeu speed skating rink (the highest in the world at 1,691m, with a natural ice surface of 10,500m²) and the Shymbulak ski resort (2,200m, 35km of pistes). The Zenkov Cathedral (1907, entirely built of wood without nails, survived the 1911 earthquake).

💡 The city of Almaty (formerly Alma-Ata — “Father of Apples”) gives its name to the wild apple (Malus sieversii), which geneticists confirmed in 1998 is the ancestor of all cultivated apple varieties worldwide. The Tian Shan forests above Almaty contain the last wild populations of this species. Every apple ever grown on earth has its origin in these mountains.

The Zelyony Bazaar (Green Market — the finest Central Asian bazaar in Kazakhstan, covered, with kumiss (fermented mare’s milk), 50 varieties of dried fruit, Kazakh bread and horsemeat sausage vendors who have been in the same spot for generations) and the cable car to the Koktobe hill (1,070m, views over the entire Almaty basin to the snow peaks).

💡 Kumiss (qymyz in Kazakh) — slightly fermented mare’s milk with a mild alcoholic content (1–3% ABV) and a sour, effervescent taste — is the defining drink of the Kazakh steppe. It is produced by churning fresh mare’s milk in large leather bags (saba), a process that takes 3–4 days. Kazakhs consider it a health drink and it is served at all celebrations.

200km from Almaty. Charyn Canyon — a 90km canyon system cut by the Charyn River through red sandstone and clay, with formations up to 300m high — has been called the “younger brother” of the Grand Canyon. The Valley of Castles (a 2km walking trail through rock spires, arches and columns of Precambrian conglomerate, 25–150m high).

💡 The Charyn ash forest (Fraxinus sogdiana — a relict species surviving from before the last Ice Age) is found only in the canyon bottom at Charyn — approximately 5,000 trees in a narrow strip of riverbank below the canyon walls. This Central Asian ash survived the Pleistocene glaciation in the canyon microclimate while its species disappeared from the surrounding steppe.

3h from Charyn. The Kolsai Lakes — three alpine lakes connected by a river, at 1,818m, 2,252m and 2,850m altitude, in a Tian Shan fir forest above the Kolsai River gorge — are the most beautiful lake system in Kazakhstan, with views over the snow peaks of the Tian Shan into Kyrgyzstan.

💡 The Tian Shan (Celestial Mountains) span 2,800km from Uzbekistan through Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to China — the highest peak is Khan Tengri (7,010m) on the Kazakhstan–Kyrgyzstan border. The range contains 18,000+ glaciers, the sources of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers.

75km from Almaty. Big Almaty Lake (2,511m altitude, a reservoir of extraordinary turquoise colour fed by Tian Shan glaciers, surrounded by silver fir and spruce, with peak visibility to the 4,973m Talgar massif) is the finest single mountain lake accessible from Almaty in a half day. The Ile-Alatau National Park for the afternoon hike.

💡 Big Almaty Lake gets its extraordinary turquoise colour from glacial flour — fine particles of rock ground by glacier movement suspended in the water, which scatters blue-green wavelengths. The same phenomenon produces the colour in lakes below retreating glaciers from the Alps to Patagonia.

2h flight from Almaty. Astana — the capital moved here from Almaty in 1997 at President Nazarbayev’s order, built from scratch on the frozen steppe at -35°C in winter — is one of the most architecturally audacious cities on earth. The Bayterek Tower (97m, a gilded sphere representing the egg of the mythological Samruk bird), the Khan Shatyr (a giant translucent tent/shopping centre), and the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation (a 62m glass pyramid by Norman Foster).

💡 The Khan Shatyr (2010, designed by Norman Foster) is the world’s largest tent structure — a 150m-high ETFE-covered tent enclosing a 140,000m² interior that maintains a subtropical climate (year-round temperature 15–30°C) inside while the exterior drops to -35°C in winter. It contains a beach resort, a river, shopping and a golf course.

The EXPO 2017 site (Kazakhstan hosted the World’s Fair on the theme of Future Energy — the Nur Alem sphere, the world’s largest spherical building at 80m diameter, now a museum of future energy technologies) and the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation (a 62m glass pyramid by Norman Foster, used for the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions). Fly from Astana (NQZ).

💡 The Nur Alem sphere at EXPO 2017 is the largest glass sphere in the world — 80m in diameter, clad in glass photovoltaic panels, containing a full museum of global energy technologies across 8 floors. It was designed to rotate to track the sun; the rotation mechanism was never activated.