The underground mosque of Shakpak Ata is a unique place, one of the most impressive monuments of Mangystau, the peninsula located on the east coast of the Caspian Sea (Mangystau region).

This mosque is one of the most ancient monuments of Islamic architecture. Also, it has some links with cave temples of ancient religions: Zoroastrianism (fire worship), Hinduism, Buddhism and early Christianity. The photos were taken by Denis Frantsouzov.

unique mosque

Tags: Mangystau oblast

Kazakhstan has a great variety of unique places attracting people from all over the world. You can enjoy amazing landscapes and take a lot of beautiful pictures.

For example, landscape photographer David Köster visited Kazakhstan for the first time in 2014. He was looking for spectacular, but not too mainstream nature locations and he was overwhelmed by the natural beauty of Kazakhstan. Let’s look at a small selection of his pictures captured during the trip.

Tuzkoel Salt Lake

autumn in Kazakhstan

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Kazakhstan continues to amaze us with its unique scenery. Of course, a lot depends on the photographer’s skill too. But when these two things come together, the result is simply stunning.

Just look at this fantastic unearthly picture taken by Sergey Terekhov. He called it “The Marsh of Space Explorers”.

Tags: landscapes

May this year brings all the desired success and happiness in your life that you can cherish always. Wish you a successful and prosperous 2015!

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Let’s feel the atmosphere of the New Year holidays reigning on the streets of the two largest cities of Kazakhstan – Astana and Almaty. Photos from voxpopuli.kz.

Astana – the capital city of Kazakhstan

New Year in Kazakhstan

Tags: Almaty city · Astana city

Lake Kaindy is a popular tourist destination located in one of the gorges of Kungei Alatau in Almaty region, at an altitude of 2000 meters. Despite the low temperature of the water, the lake is popular among divers.

The maximum depth of the lake was 21 meters in 2014. In Kazakh “Kaindy” means “a lot of birches.” There is a large birch grove located nearby. The lake was formed by an earthquake in 1910. Photo by Sergey Terekhov

Tags: Almaty oblast · landscapes

November 28, 2014, Almaty hosted the beauty contest “Miss Kazakhstan 2014”. Thirty-three beauties from all over the country took part in the final stage of the competition.

Unlike many other countries around the world, participation in the contest was free. Due to it, a lot of contenders had a real opportunity to win the title of the most beautiful girl of Kazakhstan. Photos from voxpopuli.kz

Kazakhstan beauties

Tags: Almaty city

Astana became the capital of Kazakhstan relatively recently (December 10, 1997). After that, the city experienced unprecedented in the former Soviet Union countries growth. It became the second largest city in Kazakhstan.

A lot of interesting and unusual architectural objects were erected in Astana in recent years. The population increased from 270 thousand in 1996 to 829 thousand in 2014. The following beautiful photos were taken in Astana by Thierry Andreoli.

Astana Opera

walk around Astana

Tags: Astana city

Despite the existing stereotype of Kazakhstan as a country of steppes, this land is rich in a variety of landscapes.

Beautiful nature of Kazakhstan looks especially picturesquely in autumn, when you can see a real riot of colors. Photos by Gregory Bedenko

stunning scenery

Tags: landscapes

The Assy observatory is an astronomical observatory standing on a mountain plateau Assy-Turgen located at an altitude of 2750 meters above sea level, 75 km east of Almaty.

This is the only observatory in Kazakhstan with the ideal astro-climate. Main area of research: observation of details of the apparent surface of the giant planets of the solar system. The observatory on Google Maps. Photo by Eduard Kim

Tags: Almaty oblast · landscapes