Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan - an independent state since 1991 member of the CIS. The territory is 2,717,300 sq. km.
The highest point is Mt Khan-Tengri (7,010 m) in the Tengri - Tag range of the Central Tien-Shan mountain system. The climate is severely continental.
The average temperature in January is 13 degrees below zero, Centigrade. The average temperature in July is 25 degrees above zero, Centigrade. The population is 17 million. The main nationalities are the Kazakhs and the Russians.
Also Ukrainians, Tatars, Koreans, Germans, Uzbeks, Uigurs.
The main religions are Islam and Christianity. Capital: since 1996 the capital of Kazakhstan is Akmola.
National currency: tenge. Official language: Kazakh.
Almaty
To get to the mountains people make distant trips by planes. In this respect the dwellers of Almaty (Alma – apple, Ata - father) are privileged people. The huge range of Zailijski-Alatay, which towers over the boundless Kazakh steppes, forms a four km wall, which begins straight on the southern edge of the city. On any clear day Alma-Ata dwellers can admire the view of numerous summits covered by snow even at the hottest time of the year. The experienced glance of a mountaineer will at once notice that mountains have an amazing diversity of Alpine relief and are concentrated in one rather small area and can be approached without great difficulty.
Medeo
The skating-rink Medeo (1692 m), known in many countries of the world, is located 20 km away from the southern edge of Alma-Ata in the gorge of a swift, with crystal glacial water, mountain river Malaya Almaatinka. An unusual, immense, splendid structure opens to the eye from a dam, which protects Alma-Ata and Medeo from the sills (stone and mud flows). The panorama takes one?s breath way – snow-capped peaks sparkling in the sun, the tall Tien-Shan fir-trees, the coolness of the mountain air.
Hotel ?Medeo?, a restaurant, bar, swimming pools are near by the stadium. Chim-Bulak is a place for heli-skiing and slalom.
Yassawi mausoleum
(160 km away from Chimkent, in Turkestan)
This mausoleum was built by the legendary saint – Hajji Ahmed Yassawi. It includes 35 different premises connected with each other by means of six-two-storied corridors and passageways. The destiny of the memorial was, alas, sorrowful. From the city?s decoration it rapidly turned into a fortress. Its walls grew black from the fires lit by the peasants and soldiers. Its inner premises were used as depots for ammunition and food. The memorial was badly ruined after many centuries of battles. But nowadays it has almost been completely reconstructed. This demanded great financial expenses. But the work was worth it – there?s no any other complex as grand and majestic as this one on the former territory of the Timurids.
Otrar
The ancient settlement Otrar is located in Kzylkum district near Talapty village, 7 km from the railroad station Timur, on the Right Bank of the Syrdaria River near the confluence with the Arys River.
Otrar is the native city of the medieval philosopher Al Farabi.
A settlement on the site of Otrar existed since the IVth c. BC. It was first recorded in the Arab travel guides of the XIth c. Otrar as a center of trade and handicraft and as an important junction of the caravan ways to Eastern Europe and China flourished in the Xth-XIIth c. In the end of the XIIth c. Mongols razed it to the ground. In spite of the disastrous consequences of the massacre, Otrar rised from the ashes and shortly its economic development began anew. The reason for this was the strategic location of the city on the trade routes. Between the XIIIth and XIVth centuries the mint place of Otrar, which coined money on behalf of the Mongolian khans, gained great fame.
In the second half of the XIVth c. Otrar was under the rule of Timur and turned into an important strategic center of the southern outskirts of his empire.
However, repeated sieges, fights, plunderings undermined the economy of Otrar and in the XVIIth-XVIIIth centuries it fell into decay.
In the plan Otrar is a trapeziform hill with rounded corners, directed to the sides of the world. The remnants of the citadel and other large buildings, of the gates and rabad, which covers about 10 sq. Km have come down to our days.
750 km from Almaty International Airport, 230 km from Tashkent International Airport (Uzbekistan), 80 km from the domestic airport in Shimkent.
