Kazakhstan is a vast territory, reaching the size of Western Europe, but with a population of sixteen million. This is a land of mountains, fast rivers and waterfalls, glaciers and mountain pastures.

Kazakhstan is a land of boundless steppes, hills and green meadows stretching to the horizon. In winter, temperatures reach minus forty degrees Celsius, and in summer, on the contrary, it is forty-degree heat.

The country occupies an area of historic Great Silk Road, at the junction of East and West, north and south, connecting the air and land routes of Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Tags: mountains · steppes

Zhambyl oblast is located in southern Kazakhstan. The region was named after Kazakh poet Zhambyl Dzhabayev (1846-1945).

Zhambyl oblast has good opportunities for developing tourism both inner and international. The territory of the region was crossed by the Great Silk way along which there are a lot of interesting monuments of history and culture.

The region is rich in great number of landscape and biological territories valuable for eco tourism, for example, Northern region of Western Tyan-Shan. Flora and fauna are unique there.

Tags: Zhambyl oblast

Beautiful views of Almaty, the mountains located nearby and Balkhash Lake.

Tags: Southern Kazakhstan · time-lapse

The New Year 2012 was marked with fireworks in Pavlodar like in other cities of Kazakhstan and all over the world.

Tags: fireworks · New Year · Pavlodar city · salute

December 16, Zhanauzen (Mangystau oblast) became the place of serious riots that began during the rally of oilmen. The city is a center of oil industry workers strike that has been lasting for 7 months.

The workers gathered at the day of 20th anniversary of independence of Kazakhstan to require the resumption of the negotiations and demanded the release of their leaders who were arrested and convicted. The action involved more than five thousand people.

As a result the buildings of city administration and oil company as well as a police bus were burned. According to first information about 20 people were killed and a lot of wounded. Local websites, online newspapers, Twitter were shut down in the whole region. The internal troops were moved to the city to suppress the riots.

Tags: Mangystau oblast · riots · Zhanauzen

The total area of Almaty Zoo is about 21 hectares. Abundant and varied wildlife of Kazakhstan is presented by a lot of species, in particular, such as Siberian stag, argali, wolf, golden eagle and others.

Animals from almost all continents of the Earth found their home in Almaty Zoo. White and Himalayan bears, tigers, jaguars, Persian and Far East leopards; elephants, zebras, yaks, deer; American condors, vultures; snakes and crocodiles – 509 species in total – are living there. The zoo is especially proud of a pair of white lions.

Address: Almaty, Esenberlina Str., 166. Opening hours: Daily, 10:00-17:00 in winter, 9:00-19:00 in summer.

Tags: Almaty city · Zoo

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

A couple of nice time-lapse videos of Kazakhstan new capital city Astana located in the steppe region of the country and former capital, largest city of Kazakhstan Almaty surrounded by the mountains.

Tags: Almaty city · Astana city · time-lapse

The Kazakhs are ethnicity and nation, indigenous and general population of Kazakhstan. Kazakhs are also living in nearby regions of China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Mongolia.

At present Kazakhstan is experiencing a period of national revival and the revival of national statehood. During the Soviet period Kazakhs’ traditions were proclaimed the relics of the past and were methodically eradicated. The following set of videos introduces you to the traditional games of Kazakhs.

Kazakh people national games – Intro

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Tags: Kazakhs · national games

Interesting video about several traditions of native people of Kazakhstan.

Tags: Kazakh traditions