If you decide to travel by car and your route runs along the south of Kazakhstan, I recommend you to visit the following unique Kazakhstan monument of rock art – Tamgaly.

Petroglyphs (rock carvings) of the archaeological landscape Tamgaly are one of the oldest and most striking monuments of Semirechye (Seven Rivers) rock art, since 2004 it has the status of UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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Tags: Almaty oblast

The following set of postcards and photographic reproductions of pretty decent quality create an image of the Soviet Alma-Ata (present Almaty) as a bright, modern city surrounded by white peaks of the mountains.

The city, which reached the one million mark in population in 1981, remains the cultural, economic, and financial capital of Kazakhstan. Since the late 1990s, it experienced investment and construction boom, the city changed significantly. So the pictures made in the 1980s become more and more historical. Photos by visualhistory

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Tags: Almaty city

Not so long ago Kazakhstan commemorated the 20th anniversary of closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. It is located on the border of East Kazakhstan, Pavlodar and Karaganda oblasts, about 130 km northwest of Semey city.

The main attraction of the area is “atomic” lake, which is located at the test site “Balapan”. It was formed in the explosion of a thermonuclear warhead of 140 kilotons of power in 1965.

The diameter of the lake is 500 meters; depth from the surface to the bottom is about 80 meters. In a similar way the Soviet strategists planned to build water reservoirs in arid regions of the Soviet Union. Photos by Grigory Bedenko for voxpopuli.kz

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Tags: East Kazakhstan oblast · Karaganda oblast · Pavlodar oblast · Semipalatinsk nuclear test site

People on the steppes of what is now Kazakhstan were the first to achieve both riding and milking horses – new evidence suggests. This culture had domesticated horses at least 5,500 years ago.

Tags: horses

Khodzha Akhmed Yasavi Mausoleum was built in Turkestan in 1396-1399 on the orders of emir Timur by Persian masters. The mausoleum is a masterpiece of Central Asian architecture representing the architectural heritage of past centuries. In June 2003, the Mausoleum received the status of UNESCO World Heritage Site. The photos were captured by Semyonova.

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Tags: Khodzha Akhmed Yasavi Mausoleum · Turkestan city

Koshkar-Ata necropolis is located in Mangystau oblast of Kazakhstan and has the status of the monument of 10th-19th centuries protected by the state. The photos were captured by Ruprix.

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Tags: Mangystau oblast · necropolis

Tags: Kazakh traditions

Kazakhstan is rich in various monuments of the past centuries and some of them are presented in the following video

Tags: monuments

Altyn Yemel is the largest national park of Kazakhstan located in Almaty oblast, about 150 km from Almaty city. There is a unique object of history and archaeology on its territory – Besshatyr burial mounds. The necropolis has the tombs of Eastern Scythians or Saky-Tigrakhauda people lived on that territory in 7th-6th centuries BC. There are 30 mounds located in the area. The largest one is the King’s mound with the height of 17 meters and a diameter of 104 meters. And here is the video of the area.

Tags: Almaty oblast · Altyn Yemel · Besshatyr · burial mounds · national park