Almaty
[Image:Almaty church.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Orthodox church]]
Almaty is the largest city in
Kazakhstan, with a population of 1,185,900 citizens.
The name "Almaty" means "appled" , the older version of its name, Alma-Ata, literally means "father-apple". In the surrounding region, unrivalled genetic diversity among the alma, the wild apples, implies that south-east Kazakhstan is where the domesticated
apple is native.
A troop of
Siberian Cossacks from
Omsk founded the fort
Zailiysky in 1854 at the foot of the
Tian Shan mountain range, and renamed it one year later to
Vernyj, a name that remained until 1921.
Encyclopedia
Almaty is the largest city in
Kazakhstan, with a population of 1,185,900 citizens.
The name "Almaty" means "appled" , the older version of its name, Alma-Ata, literally means "father-apple". In the surrounding region, unrivalled genetic diversity among the alma, the wild apples, implies that south-east Kazakhstan is where the domesticated
apple is native.
A troop of
Siberian Cossacks from
Omsk founded the fort
Zailiysky in 1854 at the foot of the
Tian Shan mountain range, and renamed it one year later to
Vernyj, a name that remained until 1921. In 1921, the name Alma-Ata was created by the
Bolsheviks. In a devastating earthquake in 1911, almost the only large building that remained standing was the Russian Orthodox cathedral. In the 1920s, after the completion of the Turkestan-Siberia Railway, Alma-Ata, as it was then known, became a major stopping point along the track.
In 1929, Almaty became the capital of the Kazakh SSR. In late 1991, Almaty became the capital of the Republic of Kazakhstan, a designation it kept until 1998, when the capital was moved to
Astana. Almaty, however, remains the largest city in Kazakhstan and the country's major commercial center. In 2005, the city launched an Olympic application to host the XXII
Olympic Winter Games in the year 2014, which failed, as the IOC did not select the city as a candidate.
A short bus ride into the
Tian Shan mountains brings one to
Medeo, a popular tourist destination, with several hotels and an olympic-size skating rink.
On 21 December, 1991, the Charter that ended the
Soviet Union creating the
Commonwealth of Independent States was signed there.
Universities of Almaty
- International Academy of Business
- Kazakh-American University
- Kimep
- Kazakh State University
- Kazakh Academy of Sciences
See also
- Almaty International Airport
- Primary health care. For information on the 1978 WHO-UNICEF Alma-Ata Declaration
- Names of Asian cities in different languages
Sister cities
External links
