Museum of Victims of Political Repression
Shymkent
This small museum documents Soviet oppression in Kazakhstan, from the dekulakisation (Soviet campaign of political repression from 1929 to 1932) and…
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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
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…
Shymkent
Tauelsizdik sayabagy, accessed by footbridge from the tall, Mother Earth–topped Independence Monument, was inaugurated in 2011 for the 20th anniversary of…
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…
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…
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…
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.
Shymkent
This monument consists of a tall, red granite column topped with the figure of Mother Earth.
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