KAZAKHSTAN
Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country and former Soviet republic, extends from theCaspian Sea in the west to the Altai Mountains at its eastern border with China andRussia. Its largest metropolis, Almaty, is a long-standing trading hub whoselandmarks include Ascension Cathedral, a tsarist-era Russian Orthodox church, andthe Central State Museum of Kazakhstan, displaying thousands of Kazakh artifacts.
ALMATY
Almaty is the largest city of Kazakhstan. Almaty has its roots in the medieval
settlement Almatau, that existed near the present-day city. A disputed theory holdsthat the name is derived from the Kazakh word for ‘apple’ (алма), and is often translated as “full of apples”. Almaty remains the largest, most developed, and most ethnically and culturally diverse city in Kazakhstan. The city lies in the foothills of Trans-Ili Alatau (or ZailiyskyAlatau) in the extreme south-east.It has a relatively mild climate with warm and dry summers and quite cold winters.
