The beauties of Almaty, ‘capital of magnificence’

The former capital of Kazakhstan is garnering new acclaim in international tourist publications. The metropolis at the foot of the southern mountains has become the city of businessmen and artists, without the bureaucratic heaviness of the palaces of power.

Almaty (AsiaNews) - One of the world's most important travel and tourism publications, CNN Travel, has published a report on Kazakhstan's most populous city, southern Almaty, with the subtitle: ‘How a gloomy Soviet megalopolis has become the capital of magnificence in Central Asia’. The American journalists were thunderstruck by the growth of the country's former capital, whose population exceeds 2.2 million and continues to grow, compared to the current capital Astana in the north-central part, where 1.3 million people live.

According to one of the authors of the report, Joe Yogerst, Almaty is ‘the best example of a city that has found itself again’ in recent years, sparing no compliments, even going so far as to praise ‘one of the best metro networks in the world’ and ‘world-class museums’. The metropolis is at the same time a major financial centre, a concentration of high-end boutiques and very modern shopping centres, restaurants of national cuisine and traditional folk bazaars.

Dennis Kean, an American heritage specialist, believes that ‘this city is exceptionally welcoming in terms of living conditions’, without the need to own and use a car, as there is a ‘fantastic public transport system’, and is now largely ‘the centre of contemporary art - and local cuisine - in all of Central Asia’.

Almatyni are more critical than American visitors, often presenting demands for further improvements in transport and cleanliness of public places. For the most part, however, one has to agree with the journalists, who note that Almaty has benefited greatly from the relocation of the capital to Astana, receiving more freedom to develop as a city of businessmen and artists, without the bureaucratic burdens of the palaces of power. In the metropolis at the foot of the southern mountains, ‘a truly unique spirit of creativity reigns’, with great opportunities for high-level intellectual discussions and debates.

Kazakh cuisine is one of the elements that has most impressed observers, for how local chefs manage to combine the most advanced techniques of food preparation with the most traditional ingredients and recipes, dating back to the nomadic ancestors of the steppes. The culinary masterpieces are certainly the Bešbarmak of the Tatar-Turanian horsemen, which means ‘five fingers’ (beš = five, barmak = fingers) as it is usually eaten with the hands, a bed of dough cut into uneven pieces, covered with smoked horse, mutton or beef meat, or even with fish; and then Čalop, the cold soup of meat and vegetables that can be kept for a long time in the refrigerator or in the window wells in cold weather, sprinkled with Kumis, the drink obtained from fermenting mare's milk, with a sugar and alcohol content higher than that of Kefir.

In addition to the ‘delicious and hearty’ dishes of the nomads, the journalists were able to admire many of the sights of the city itself, such as the Zelenyj Bazar (the ‘green market’), the Orthodox Ascension Cathedral, seat of the metropolis of Kazakhstan, the Kasteev Museum and the Historical Museum. They were most impressed by the ‘secret exhibition’ of the French House, an underground exhibition without a specific title stretching under a large shopping mall, owned by a mysterious oligarch and collector very fond of his hometown, which can be visited free of charge upon registration. Tickets can be obtained without going to any office, but only by asking around who to phone or where to email. The exhibition guides, also strictly anonymous, illustrate the masterpieces of Kazakh art and folk manufacture.