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Mausoleum of Rabigha
This small building is actually a replica of the 15th-century original (which was torn down in 1898). Rabiga-Sultan Begum was a great-granddaughter of Timur whose husband Abylkayyr Khan, a 15th-century leader of the then-nomadic Uzbeks, put the finishing touches to the structure of
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History Museum
The good History Museum has a natural-history section with stuffed regional wildlife, including a snow leopard and a giant maral deer, and human history exhibits that reveal the huge number of ancient burial mounds in the region.
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Atyrau History Museum
The modernised Atyrau History Museum has some interesting displays including a replica of the local ‘Golden Man – a 2nd-century-BC Sarmatian chief with gold-plated tunic, found in 1999 – and a room on recently excavated Saraychik, an old trading centre 55km north of Atyrau, where s
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City Park
The large, somewhat untidy city park abuts the south side of the Ishim. On its southern edge youll find the Atameken , a 200m-long, walk-around country map with models of major buildings, and Duman , an amusement centre most worth visiting for its oceanarium, which has over 2000 cr
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Northern Lights
These three light-green apartment towers with wavy sides are a prominent feature of the western part of the boulevard. Opposite stand the Emerald Towers , office blocks whose tops splay outward like the pages of opening books, and further west looms the tall Transport & Communi
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Anatomical Museum
In an unmarked building thats part of Semey Medical University, this one-room museum exhibits the usual pickled organs you might expect medical students to look at – but also a gruesome collection of babies and embryos with appalling deformities caused by nuclear radiation from Pol
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Fishermens Museum
Four fishing boats stand on pedestals beside Aralsks former harbour, near the town centre, as a tribute to fallen heroes. The biggest of the four now forms part of the recently established Fishermens Museum, which has fishing gear, paintings, photos and maps from Soviet times, and
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Ship Cemetery
Near Zhalanash (Zhambyl), a former fishing village 55km west of Aralsk and now some 10km from the seashore, you can still see a ship cemetery, where three abandoned hulks rust in the sand, providing shelter for those other ships of the desert, the area’s wandering camels. A few yea
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Historical
This big, proud new museum has three floors of colourful exhibits on regional history, from prehistoric petroglyphs to the obligatory Nazarbaev homage on the top floor. Much of the material is paintings, maps and dioramas, since the collection of actual artefacts is sparse before t
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Abay Museum
The large Abay Museum is dedicated to the 19th-century humanist poet Abay Kunanbaev. Along with displays about Abay’s life and work, the museum has many 19th-century artefacts, and sections on the Kazakh nomadic tradition and Abay’s literary successors, including Mukhtar Auezov (18
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Kök
The smooth, gleaming and recently renovated Kök-Töbe Cable Car runs from beside the Palace of the Republic on Dostyq up to Kök-Töbe (Green Hill) on the citys southeast edge. The hill is crowned by a 372m-high telecommunications tower. Near the top station are a viewing platform, cr
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Tauelsizdik sayabagy
Tauelsizdik sayabagy, accessed by footbridge from the tall, Mother Earth–topped Independence Monument , was inaugurated in 2011 for the 20th anniversary of Kazakhstans independence. It focuses on Ramizder alany (Symbols Sq) which contains assorted national and ethnic-Kazakh symbols
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Regional Museum
The pride and joy of what is one of Kazakhstans best local museums is the domed rear building housing an unusually impressive collection of balbals. Also in the rear courtyard is a room dedicated to medieval Taraz, displaying chiefly paintings and pottery. The main building holds a
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Kazakh Museum of Folk Musical Instruments
In a striking 1908 wooden building (another work of cathedral architect Zenkov) at the east end of Panfilov Park, the city’s most original museum reopened in mid-2013 after a full revamp. As well as seeing and hearing its fine collection of traditional Kazakh instruments – wooden h
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Museum of the First President
Housed in the former presidential palace, this museum is an intriguing peep into the pomp and circumstance surrounding the country’s leader. A succession of lavish galleries and halls, including the old presidential office itself, is decked with beautiful gifts to President Nazarba
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Polkovnichy Island
Rural Polkovnichy Island is across a long bridge over the Irtysh. On the left, 600m past the end of the bridge, is the sombre and impressive Stronger than Death memorial , erected in 2001 for victims of the nuclear tests. Above the marble centrepiece of a mother covering her child
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Museum of Victims of Political Repression
In this small museum photos and documents on Soviet oppression in Kazakhstan and its most celebrated victims surround a central sculpture showing freedom-striving figures restrained by a Soviet banner. A 200T booklet with some English text (if available) helps in understanding what
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St Nicholas Cathedral
The pale turquoise Nikolsky Sobor, with its gold onion domes, stands out west of the centre near the corner of Qabanbay Batyr and Baytursynuly. The cathedral was built in 1909 and later used as a stable for Bolshevik cavalry, before reopening about 1980. Its a terrifically atmosphe
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Kazakhstan Museum of Arts
This is the best art collection in the country, with Kazakh, Russian and some Western European art and a room of top-class modern Kazakh handicrafts, with much explanatory material in English. Particularly interesting are the room on Russias Mir Iskusstva movement and the large col
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Green Market
This large, two-level market has a true flavour of Central Asia, and is worth putting on your itinerary even if youre not really food-shopping. Stalls are piled with nuts, fresh and dried fruit, smoked fish, spices, ready-made Korean salads, vegetables, medicinal herbs, cheeses, sa
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