Almaty

Almaty (formerly Alma-Ata), largest city and former capital of Kazakhstan, on the Great and Little Almaatinka rivers in the south-eastern part of the country. Almaty is located in the foothills of the Tian Mountains near China. The city is the processing centre of a fertile fruit-producing region, while other manufactured goods include mining machinery, electrical equipment, textiles, and tobacco products. It is also a dynamic centre of the film industry. Known as one of the most beautiful cities of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Almaty has an opera house, a symphony orchestra, a ballet company, a state university, and an academy of sciences.

Founded around the Russian fort Zailiyskoe in 1854, the city was known as Vernoye from 1855 to 1921. Earthquakes in 1887 and 1911 and a flood in 1921 badly damaged the city. In the 1920s Almaty developed into a major economic centre when the newly built Turkestan-Siberian Railway reached it. In 1929 Almaty was made the capital of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR), and was the capital of an independent Kazakhstan from 1991. In 1994 the parliament announced that the capital would move from Almaty to Astana. The move was complete in 1998. Population 1,209,000 (2007 estimate).