I visited Almaty in 2002, no more than a short stop before flying home, and immediately wished I had more time there.

The city, founded in 1854 as the second capital of Kazakhstan, is located in the mountains, an area that is earthquake-prone. Hotel Kazakhstan, with its height of 102m the highest building in the city and a major landmark, was built in 1975 and has 5 stories undergound which in their turn are resting on a foundation of springs – the whole construction carefully designed to make it earthquake-resistant.

There is a surpising amount of lush greenery in the city, with tree-shaded alleys and many parks, making it probably the greenest city in all of Central Asia; it provides 18 square meters of greenery per inhabitant (1.5 million in 2002). The area around the city is mostly used for groowing vegetables and fruit (including the huge apples which gave the city its name).

Major sights are the Zenkov Cathedral, a Russian-Orthodox church built entirely of wood, without a single nail, which because of its construction survived many eathquakes, and the independence monument, with interesting sculptures depicting the history of the country. There are many musea, which – except the Central Museum – were unfortunately all closed on the Monday we were here. The Central Museum is certainly worth a visit, but take a guide as none of the text with the exhibits are translated into English: it’s all in Kazakh in cyrillic script. I would have loved to visit the Musical Instruments museum, which has a large collection of traditional instruments; the museum’s scientists are doing archeological research and reconstructing old instruments, and there are recordings of how the instruments sound(ed).

I’d go back, just to be able to visit the Musical Instruments museum!