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Shymkent is the third-largest city in Kazakhstan, in the far south near the border with Uzbekistan, famous as an old Silk Road city with the Shymkent Citadel, Ordabasy Square, the Shymkent Dendropark and the ancient town of Sayram on its edge. It lies 120 km north of Tashkent and about 690 km west of Almaty.
The city began in the 12th century as a caravanserai guarding Sayram, a Silk Road town 10 km to the east, and grew as a market between Turkic nomads and settled Sogdians. It was destroyed several times, ruled by the Khanate of Kokand and taken by Russia in 1864, after which a new town of straight streets rose beside the old citadel. Today its centre mixes wide avenues with large parks such as Independence Park and Abay Park.
Shymkent is also a base for exploring southern Kazakhstan: the Aksu Canyon and the Aksu-Zhabagly Nature Reserve in the western Tian Shan, the juniper forests of Sayram-Ugam National Park, and the ruins of Otrar with the nearby Arystan Bab Mausoleum.
Ordabasy Square is the central square of Shymkent, where streets named after the Kazakh judges Tole Bi, Kazybek Bi and Aiteke Bi meet. Its Independence Monument, unveiled in 2009, is a 24-metre stele topped by an 8-metre figure of Mother Earth, and a 104-metre bridge links it to Independence Park.
The Shymkent Citadel is the ancient fortress hill at the heart of Shymkent, the core of the medieval town that guarded the Silk Road route to Sayram. Digs in the 1970s and 1980s found remains from the 15th to 18th centuries, and the Old City grew up around its foot from the 16th century.
Independence Park in Shymkent was created in 2011 for the 20th anniversary of Kazakhstan's independence, beside the Citadel, Ordabasy Square and the train station. It has a singing fountain, a 50-metre flagpole, pavilions, playgrounds and the Altyn Shanyraq monument at its heart.
Abay Park in the heart of Shymkent is named after the Kazakh poet Abay, with a museum and a monument to him near its south entrance. At its centre stands a large World War II memorial with an eternal flame, and an art gallery and a public swimming pool sit in the north of the park.
The Shymkent Dendropark is a large arboretum on the northern edge of Shymkent, laid out in 1979 on the site of a former city dump. Rebuilt from 2008 and now a protected area of about 120 hectares, it has a big central pond with boats, and a children's railway links it to the zoo.
The Shymkent Zoo is the state zoo of Shymkent and one of the largest and oldest in Kazakhstan, officially opened on 29 April 1980 and covering 54 hectares. It keeps more than 270 species, including over 40 from Kazakhstan's Red Book of rare animals, and welcomes over 300,000 visitors a year.
Aksu Canyon is a 15 km long, 500-metre-deep gorge on the Aksu River east of Shymkent, one of the largest canyons in Central Asia and, with Sharyn Canyon, among the most popular in Kazakhstan. Peaks over 4,000 metres rise nearby, and a narrow footbridge crosses it in the south.
Sayram-Ugam National Park covers the western Tian Shan mountains on the border with Uzbekistan, its boundary 30 km south-east of Shymkent. It is known for juniper forests and wild fruit and nut trees such as walnut, pistachio and apple, with plants from steppe to high mountain zones.
Sayram, on the eastern edge of Shymkent, is among the oldest cities in Kazakhstan, marking its 3,000th anniversary in 1999, and the site of the country's first mosque. Known in medieval times as Isfijab, it keeps mud-brick houses and old mausoleums, including the tomb of Ibrahim Ata.
Otrar, 120 km north-west of Shymkent, is the ruined Silk Road city where a Mongol trade caravan met its end in 1218, provoking Genghis Khan, who took the town after a five-month siege in 1219. Today grassy ruins of towns, castles and watchtowers cover the old Otrar oasis.
The Arystan Bab Mausoleum, near Otrar about 120 km north-west of Shymkent, stands over the 12th-century grave of Arystan Bab. Legend says Timur raised the first tomb here after Khoja Ahmed Yasawi told him to in a dream; the present building is mostly from the early 1900s and draws many pilgrims.
Aksu-Zhabagly Nature Reserve, in the western Tian Shan east of Shymkent, is the oldest nature reserve in Central Asia, covering about 132,000 hectares at 1,100 to 4,236 metres. Its mountains, cut by the Zhabagly, Aksu and Baldyrbek rivers, are part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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