ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN: PANFILOV PARK WAR MEMORIAL AND THE SILK ROAD EXPRESS TRAIN

A large park surrounds the Ascension Eastern Orthodox Cathedral, and in that park is a war memorial that honors both the Bolshevik Revolution (1917-1920) and World War II (1941-1945).

The memorial is a long, stone-paved mall bordered by dense foliage and containing several interesting works of art.

This is the entrance on one end of the park. On the other side of this brick wall . . .

. . . is a giant relief of fifteen World War II soldiers (one for each Soviet republic) who seem to be bursting out of the wall. The inscription on the base translates to something like, "Great Russia will never turn back; Moscow is behind us!"

ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN: THE ASCENSION CATHEDRAL (AKA ZENKOV CATHEDRAL)

Kazakhstan and Russia share 4,254 miles of border, so it is no wonder that there has been a strong Russian presence in Kazakhstan for centuries, long before what is called the "Soviet period" began in about 1920.

Although Kazakhstan was and is predominantly Muslim, Christianity spread throughout the country with the Russians who immigrated during the 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1907, a Russian Orthodox Church was built in Almaty, not the first such church in Kazakhstan, but perhaps the most unique and most beautiful.

Unfortunately for us, it was being renovated when we were there:

To understand its construction, it is important to know that because Almaty is located at the edge of the magnificent Tian Shan mountain range, it is prone to earthquakes. After a magnitude 7.3 earthquake brought down many of the buildings in Almaty in 1887, most of the new construction was wood instead of brick, including the new Russian Orthodox Ascension Cathedral, also known as the Zenkov Cathedral (Zenkov was the engineer), which was begun in 1904 and finished in 1907. It is built entirely of Tian Shan spruce and held together not with nails but with iron bolts (I'm not sure what the difference is). Wooden beams were fastened together with rolling brackets, giving it a unique kind of flexibility that miraculously saved it from almost any damage in the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that hit Almaty in 1911 and again destroyed most of the city.

With its 184-foot-tall spire, the Ascension Cathedral claims to be the second tallest all-wooden building in the world.

The fencing around the renovation areas shows pictures of the cathedral in the early 20th century and in the present day:

It looks a lot like the cathedrals of St. Petersburg, Russia:

Photo from here

ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN: THE MEDEU SKATING RINK AND KOK TOBE HILL

1. MOUNTAINS AND MEDEU SKATING RINK

Our bus took us out of the city of Almaty, up a winding mountain road, and through some breathtaking scenery. It was October 5th, and the first snow of the season had already fallen the previous day. 

The buses parked in a lot next to the Medeu Skating Rink, the highest Olympic-sized skating rink in the world. It is situated at 5,548 feet above sea level, making it a great place for high-altitude training:

ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN: THE ROYAL TULIP HOTEL AND REPUBLIC SQUARE

We flew from Urumqi to Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday, October 4, 2017. I was a little anxious about what we might find in the uncharted territory (for us) of the Stans. 

Almaty, located near the Kyrgyzstan border and not far from the China border, is the largest city in the country. There are 1.7 million people in Almaty, which is 9% of the entire country's population. Almaty also served as the capital during the time Kazakhstan was part of the USSR (1929-1997). The capital was moved north to Astana in December of 1997. Note that Kazakhstan's largest border is with Russia:

Map from here

And there I had a significant Aha! moment: The Stans were part of the USSR! I'm sure I knew that at one time--or did I? I couldn't have even placed them on the map prior to this trip, which is crazy considering that Kazakhstan is the 9th largest country in the world, area wise. I could place every other country in the top ten list on a map before this trip, so why not Kazakhstan?

#1: Russia

#2: Canada

#3: United States of America

#4: China

#5: Brazil

#6: Australia

#7: India

#8: Argentina

#9: Kazakhstan

#10: Algeria

Maybe it's because although Kazakhstan is rich in natural resources, the US has never had access to those resources. Maybe it's because there has been almost no US tourism to this region until recently. Maybe it's because out of the ten countries on the above list, Kazakhstan has the smallest population (17.8 million). The United States is about four times larger than Kazakhstan, but has seventeen times the population, which gives you an idea of how sparsely populated Kazakhstan is. Why should we care about them, right?

Map from the CIA website

Anyway, Kazakhstan was the last of the Stans to sign the resolution to withdraw from the USSR. They were understandably concerned about economics. These days Kazakhstan appears to have good relations with other countries in the area. They have strong economic ties to the European Union, China, and Russia, in that order, showing that they have successfully broken away from Russia. In addition, they are gradually shifting from the Cyrillic (Russian) alphabet to the Latin alphabet (what we use).

After we arrived in Almaty, we went straight to the Royal Tulip Hotel, one of the best hotels of our trip. Yes, it was very Dutch.