Windows and Outer Wall of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi's Mausoleum

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Shymkent

Southern Kazakhstan’s most vibrant city, with bustling bazaars and a lively downtown, Shymkent (Chimkent; Шымкент) has more of a Central Asian buzz on its leafy streets than anywhere else in the country. The Mongols razed a minor Silk Road stop here; the Kokand khanate built a frontier fort in the 19th century; Russia took it in 1864; and the whole place was rebuilt in Soviet times. Little more than 62 miles (100km) from Uzbekistan's capital Tashkent, today Shymkent is a thriving trade centre that refines oil and brews two of Kazakhstan’s best beers, Shymkentskoe Pivo and the Bavarian-style microbrew Sigma. Its population is about 65% Kazakh and about 14% Uzbek. It's mostly modern and brash, with a couple of good museums, but southeast of the main part of the city, across the small Koshkar-Ata canal, you’ll find the few remaining streets of pre-Russian Shymkent – a quiet, village-like area of wooden houses.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

  • Regional Museum of Southern Kazakhstan

    Regional Museum of Southern Kazakhstan

    Shymkent

    In its shiny new quarters on the northern outskirts of the city, this regional museum has well-presented, trilingual displays on local geology, Iron Age…

  • Tauelsizdik sayabagy

    Tauelsizdik sayabagy

    Shymkent

    Tauelsizdik sayabagy, accessed by footbridge from the tall, Mother Earth–topped Independence Monument, was inaugurated in 2011 for the 20th anniversary of…

  • Alleya Slavy

    Alleya Slavy

    Shymkent

    In Abay Park, two tall concrete pillars lean on each other above an eternal flame, and the alley is lined with plaques bearing the names of the more than…

  • Bazar Samal

    Bazar Samal

    Shymkent

    Of several new markets around the city fringes, Bazar Samal, next to Samal bus station, is the biggest and most interesting, with a particularly colourful…

  • Central or Upper Bazaar

    Central or Upper Bazaar

    Shymkent

    The central bazaar is now somewhat diminished after the conversion of its outlying sprawl into parks and the removal of many traders to markets on the…

  • Altyn Shanyrak

    Altyn Shanyrak

    Shymkent

    The tall Altyn Shanyrak monument in the middle of Independence Park – a sort of tall, metallic funnel – represents the central roof opening of a yurt.

  • Independence Monument

    Independence Monument

    Shymkent

    This monument consists of a tall, red granite column topped with the figure of Mother Earth.

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