Between the ridges of Bayan-Zhurek and the Dzungarian Alatau, in the Almaty region, there is a wide valley of Kaskarau. Its beginning lies at the foot of the Dzungarian Alatau, at an altitude of 1,800-1,900 meters above sea level.

In the valley, a significant number of monuments of archeology of different epochs have been found, including ancient petroglyphs – carved or painted images on stones. Photos by: Sergey Terekhov.

traces of ancient people

Tags: Almaty oblast

September 30, 2016, an exhibition of arts and crafts, objects of everyday life of Kazakh people of the 12th-19th centuries opened in the State Museum of Arts named after A. Kasteyev in Almaty.

All exhibits are part of the collection of the famous Kazakh collector and antiquarian Azat Akimbek. You can see examples of folk crafts – weaving, embroidery, leatherworking, wood, pottery, jewelry and blacksmith art. Photos by: voxpopuli.kz

visit the exhibition

Tags: Almaty city

Besshatyr royal mounds are the main attraction of the national park “Altyn-Emel”, located in the Kerbulak district of the Almaty region. This necropolis is considered to be the sacred place of ancient Saks, who lived on the territory of Kazakhstan in the first millennium BC.

Here, on an area of two square kilometers, you can find 18 royal burial mounds with diameters from 8 to 70 meters and heights of 2 to 20 meters. The place name “Besshatyr” is translated as “five tents” probably because of the number of the largest burial mounds in the area. Photos by: Sergey Terekhov.

explore the ancient mounds

Tags: Almaty oblast

The mausoleum on the grave of the poet and preacher Khoja Ahmed Yasawi is located in the city of Turkestan in South Kazakhstan region. It is the central object of the historical and cultural museum-reserve “Azret Sultan.”

The mausoleum was built on the burial site of the Sufi poet Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, who had great authority among Muslims in the region and had an impact on Islam in Central Asia. The photos were taken by Ilia Afanasieff.

beautiful historical and architectural monument

Tags: Turkestan city

This very vivid picture of the Soviet past of Kazakhstan made by photographer and journalist Semyon Fridlyand looks like a frame from a historical movie.

It is Temirtau city located in Karaganda region early in the second half of the 20th century.

Tags: Karaganda oblast

In October 2013, the Kazakh Geographic Society organized a historical and archaeological, ethnographic expedition to Kyzylorda region located in the southern part of the country. During the six-day expedition, the participants drove about 3.5 thousand kilometers.

The region has a vast historical and cultural heritage, beautiful nature. Here are some photos taken during the expedition by Damir Otegen and Vasily Mihailin, voxpopuli.kz.

picturesque landscapes

Tags: Kzyl-Orda oblast · landscapes

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