Kazakhstan
8 stories from 6 places visited between 2016 and 2025
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Almaty, Kazakhstan
The wooden cathedral, Big Almaty Lake and where to eat Three trips to Almaty: the timber Zenkov Cathedral and its earthquake story, storm light over Big Almaty Lake, and a week of tandyr bread, pelmeni and samovar tea.
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Big Almaty Lake, Kazakhstan
The turquoise reservoir an hour above the city How to reach Big Almaty Lake: a Yandex taxi to the checkpoint, then a jeep and guide. Plus the facts, at 2,511 m in the Ile-Alatau park with three peaks over it.
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Almaty, Kazakhstan
The Green Bazaar, where they feed you before you buy The Green Bazaar in Almaty: horse meat counters, mountains of dried fruit, and stallholders who hand you samples until buying something feels like the polite response.
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Almaty, Kazakhstan
Zenkov Cathedral, the timber church that outlived an earthquake The Ascension Cathedral in Almaty: built 1904 to 1907 almost entirely of timber, engineered to sway rather than snap, and why the no-nails story is a myth.
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Otrar, Kazakhstan
The Silk Road city that defied Genghis Khan Otrar in June 2016: the excavated ruins of a great Silk Road city, its rebuilt gate, the Arystan Bab Mausoleum and a yurt welcome out on the steppe.
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Shymkent, Kazakhstan
The southern base for Silk Road trips to Otrar and Turkistan Shymkent in June 2016: the Rixos Khadisha and its oasis, lunch on a carpeted tapchan, sizzling dinner plates, and our launchpad for Otrar and Turkistan.
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Turkistan, Kazakhstan
The Yasawi Mausoleum that nobody ever dared to finish Turkistan in June 2016: the tiled mass of the Khoja Ahmed Yasawi Mausoleum under its turquoise domes, plus one very patient camel in the rose garden.
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Astana, Kazakhstan
Statement architecture, from a glass pyramid to gilded horsemen Astana in June 2016: the Bayterek tower glowing at night, the Hazrat Sultan Mosque, Norman Foster's glass pyramid and a capital built at full volume.