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'Almaty' (Kazakh: 'Алматы'; formerly known as ''Alma-Ata'', also ''Vernyj'', ''Vyernyi'' (Верный) in Imperial Russia) is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of 1,226,000 (as of 1 August 2005) ^[2], which represents 8% of the population of the country (unofficial sources claim 2,000,900 and 13% correspondingly ^[3]). It was the capital of Kazakhstan (and its predecessor, the Kazakh SSR) from 1929 to 1998. Despite losing its status as the capital, Almaty remains the major commercial center of Kazakhstan.
Almaty is 40 - 50% ethnically Russian. Until the mid-1980s, Kazakhs represented only 12 per cent of Almaty's population, but that figure increased nearly twofold by the end of the decade. According to unofficial statistics, Kazakhs now account for over half of Almaty's two million residents.

Contents

Name

History

Universities of Almaty

See also

Olympic aspirations

External links

Olympic-related

Travel-related

References

Name

The name "Almaty" means "rich with apple"; the older Soviet-era Russian version of its name, Alma-Ata, originates from a mistake (literally means "Grandfather-apple"). In the surrounding region, there is a great genetic diversity among the wild apples; the region is in fact in the ancestral home of the apple, and the wild ''Malus sieversii'', now considered to be a likely candidate for the ancestor of the modern domestic apple, originates from the area around Almaty.

History

The area around Almaty used to be part of Chinese territory, but was later transferred to Russian control. 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 ("father-apple") 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.
Chinese composer Xian Xinghai lived in Almaty from 1941 to 1945.
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 a failed bid to host the XXII Olympic Winter Games in the year 2014, but was successful in its bid to host the 2011 Winter Asian Games.
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

★

★ Kazakh Ablaikhan University of International Relations and World Languages

★ Almaty Institute of Power Engineering and Telecommunications

★ Kazakh-British Technical University

★ Kazakh National Technical University (KazNTU)

★ Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KazUU)

★ Suleyman Demirel University (SDU)

★ Kazakh Economic University (KazEU)

★ International Academy of Business (IAB)

★ University of International Business(UIB)

★ Kimep (Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics, and Strategic Research)

★ Kazakh-American University (KAU)

★ Kazakh Academy of Sciences

★ Kazakh State Academy of Architecture and Civil Engineering

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

★ Kazakhstan International School

Olympic aspirations

Almaty was an official candidate to host the 2014 Winter Olympics^[4], but was eliminated from consideration after it failed to be included in the "short list" of candidate cities.

External links

★ City of Almaty Official website (in Kazakh, English, and Russian)

Olympic-related

★ Almaty 2022 -- Insights on future Olympic games

★ Homepage of the Almaty 2014 Olympic bid

Travel-related

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★ Timeout Almaty - Entertainment Guide

★ Almaty Mayor's Office -

★ Almaty Airport

★ Almaty Guide

★ Almaty Project of TU Berlin

★ Almaty Fashion Week

★ Nightlife Almaty

★ Almaty Expat Site

★ Almaty Development - Projects and Construction

★ Almaty or Bust!

★ Alatau IT CIty

★ Satellite picture by Google Maps

★ Culture Crash in Kazakhstan

★ Up, Up and Away: New Towers, and Ambitions to Match - The New York Times

★ Oh, the Places You’ll Go! - The New York Times Travel

★ Almatylink

References

1. Ness, Immanuel. ''Encyclopedia of World Cities''. M E Sharpe Reference, 1999. ISBN 0765680173. Page 19.
2. «С начала года население Алматы увеличилось на 1,4%»
3. iwpr.net — Migrants Compound Almaty's Problems
4. http://www.gamesbids.com/english/bids/2014.shtml