Things to see and do Kazakhstan

A variety of Kazakh artists are on show in this small gallery, which boasts beautiful canvases with a wide range of influences. You'll find everything from a kitsch steppe décor with a prancing horse to dark, masterfully executed canvases evoking gulags. It's also worth poking around to find paintings by artists who are not well known or who didn't have a chance between the Soviet occupation and the upheavals of independence, but who are not without talent! A visit to our Instagram page will give you a good idea.

It was here, in Aralsk and Moynaq, that the Russian Revolution was saved. As famine struck Russia, Lenin mobilized dozens of trains and urged the Aral fishermen to increase their production. International aid, which Lenin eventually accepted, also had a lot to do with it, but the Aralsk railway station has preferred to remember this glorious episode in local history through a fresco in the purest Soviet realist style. A must-see.

This museum traces the country's military history, with a wealth of images and propaganda posters, which are probably the most interesting elements for a foreigner. The place is radically lacking in explanations in English, and the succession of portraits of local generals leaves one a little indifferent. It's a pity, because the museum's collection of over 6,000 items - paintings, weapons, armor, uniforms - would benefit from being highlighted.

This imposing monument was built as a tribute to the soldiers who fell in the Second World War during the defense of Moscow between November 1941 and January 1942. The men of the ^316th Division, commanded by General Panfilov, fought against the German armies to defend the capital and hold out until a counter-offensive was possible. It takes the form of an impressive stone statue designed in the purest tradition of Soviet realism, placed at the end of a stone walkway where an eternal flame burns. A soldier literally seems to emerge from the rock, while behind his outstretched arms stand out the faces and profiles of other soldiers of various nationalities. The main monument is framed by two frescoes in the same style, dedicated to World War II soldiers on the right, and to Russian revolutionaries on the left. The whole was inaugurated on May 9, 1975, for the 30th^{anniversary of} the victory. It is the work of Russian sculptors Andryushchenko and Artimovich, champions of Soviet realism who had already worked on other monuments of the same type in various republics of the Soviet empire. It was completely restored in 2012. The site is one of Almaty's must-sees, popular with newlyweds who come here to have their photos taken in full regalia. Every year on May 9, the date chosen for the end of the Second World War throughout the former USSR, the victory over fascism continues to be celebrated around the eternal flame.

Fifty kilometers from Aktau, in the western part of the Mangyshlak peninsula, lies the Karagiye depression, one of the lowest points on the planet, 132 meters below sea level. The high salt content of the soil has accelerated the process of rock erosion, creating a vast depression some 40 kilometers long, above which a strange natural phenomenon occurs: the formation of rain clouds when the depression is devoid of the slightest drop of water. Not an uncommon sight to observe.

The museum dedicated to Abay Ibrahim Kunanbayouli (1845-1904), a poet born in the village of Karaoul, on the outskirts of Semey, when the town was still called Semipalatinsk, retraces the major stages in the life of the man considered to be the Kazakh man of letters par excellence. Having studied in Semipalatinsk, he took all his lessons in Russian, which later enabled him to translate numerous works by the great Russian poets and novelists, making them accessible to Kazakhs. As a member of the pantheon of great national figures, his museum is logically well-stocked, and visitors will be able to explore the rooms and corridors devoted to Abaï's childhood, his influences and his literary work, to familiarize themselves with a little-known author who has never been translated in France. Genealogy, writings, fellow travelers and family are presented in detail, then linked to the poems. There are also numerous drawings evoking the themes of Abaï's stories and poems in a pictorial way. Above all, however, it is Abaï's morality speeches that remain highly prized by Kazakhs to this day, whether in teaching, child-rearing or, more broadly, in everyday life. The tour ends with a small reproduction of a ^19th-century Kazakh interior, complete with bed, armchair, desk and cupboards. Unfortunately, there's no translation of the commentaries, which are all in Russian or Kazakh. Ask for the guided tour to fully appreciate the visit.

Set back from the main square, the museum can be spotted by the relief sculpture of the great writer wearing a beard, on the modern part of the building; it is next to the small log house that Lieutenant Dostoyevsky occupied between 1854 and 1859. It stands out enough from the surrounding architecture to be noticed. On the right is a statue of Dostoyevsky in uniform, chatting with Shokan Valikhanov, Kazakh ethnologist and historian, a contemporary of the Russian writer and considered the father of modern Kazakh historiography. The two men met in Omsk, and struck up a close friendship that lasted despite Dostoyevsky's exile.

The museum, housed in a beautiful setting with walls decorated with large pages of Dostoyevsky's handwriting, displays mainly period photographs and a number of books that marked, influenced or inspired the Russian author, just like Hugo, Byron or Balzac. Semey is also featured, with a historical model of the city and black-and-white photographs of its main monuments. In the center, a space evokes the world of the Gulag. Here, visitors can linger over drawings by Korsakova and Tolkacheva, depicting prisoners' faces with intensity.

The visit concludes with a tour of Dostoyevsky's home, which consists of an entrance hall adjacent to a small bedroom, a living room and a study. Period furniture has been arranged to recreate Dostoyevsky's everyday world during the five years he spent at Semey.

The Semey Museum of Fine Arts, opened in 1985 thanks to a donation from a wealthy Russian patron, featured 500 paintings from Russia and Europe. After a quarter-century of expansion, the museum has become one of the largest in Kazakhstan, and certainly one of the most interesting, with over 3,000 paintings, sculptures and other works of art collected in Kazakhstan, Russia, Italy and France. All date from the ^16th and ^17th centuries. A real godsend for art lovers in a country with relatively few museums of this kind!

Soberly named "Stronger than Death", this monument was erected on August 29, 2001 on Polkovnichy Island, just south of the city, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the closure of the nuclear test site, but also the date on which the first Soviet atomic bomb exploded. A thirty-meter-high black marble column, hollowed out to evoke a nuclear mushroom cloud, towers over a statue of a woman trying to protect her child. The monument is now mostly visited by newlyweds, who choose to have their photo taken there rather than in front of the statue of Abay! Nearly 500 nuclear tests were carried out by the Soviets in the Semipalatinsk quadrangle, on the Kurchatov site. The latter can only be visited with special authorization and radiation protection equipment.

In 2009, the United Nations chose August 29 as the "International Day against Nuclear Tests". This choice was made at Kazakhstan's suggestion, which is no doubt why the dates of July 16 (the first American atomic test, in 1945, in the New Mexico desert) or February 13 (the first French atomic test, in the Sahara) were not chosen. These three nations alone carried out 97% of the 2,404 nuclear tests that took place worldwide on that date: 210 for France, 980 for the Soviets and 1,110 for the Americans.

If your steps took you to Aktau in November 2017, you may have witnessed the opening of the "time capsule": a letter written by the city's inhabitants and builders in 1967. Buried in a cylinder, hidden in Mikrorayon 2, it contained certain letters and messages written at the time for the attention of future generations. Opened for the ^50th anniversary of the city's foundation in 2017, its contents are on display in the regional museum, and a new capsule has been hidden... next opening in 2067!

The monument to the heroes and victims of the Great Patriotic War takes the form of a circular plaza, decorated on the ground with geometric interlacing and surrounding a second circle on whose edges stand five concrete blocks, representing the five years of war and surrounding an eternal flame. The upper tips of the blocks are inclined, evoking the silhouette of a yurt. A promenade joins the waterfront where a Mig-21 appears to take off facing the Caspian Sea.

Head down to the seafront from the end of the promenade at the Mig memorial. The beaches had their dark days after independence, but have now mostly been cleaned up and redeveloped for leisure. The beaches in the town center are not the most beautiful, but they are there to offer a pleasant setting for a stroll. You'll find more beautiful scenery if you follow the seafront southwards and walk a little beyond mikrorayon 1. Here, the beaches are less crowded and wilder than those in the town center.

There's nothing of note in Mikrorayon 10 from a cultural or architectural point of view, but this district to the east of the regional museum is worth a detour for the gigantic portraits of the "fathers of the nation" that adorn the sides of the buildings. These include Abilay Khan (block no. 19), Tole Bi (block no. 20) and Aytebek Bi (block no. 22). One of the latest portraits is of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, painted before he left office.

This small gallery exhibits the work of Kazakh artists from all over the country. It's a good place to take the measure of the contemporary nomadic artistic fiber. There's no real unity of style, and the exhibits move from vintage to modern, drawing on every possible trend and influence in a setting that's sometimes cosy, sometimes destroyed. There's no doubt about it, the aim is to unsettle visitors a little, and to highlight the works on display as much as possible. A must-see for art lovers and neophytes alike.

This nature reserve, essentially made up of marshland, is a delight for birdwatchers. Far from industrialization, birds are spoilt for choice when it comes to finding an island where they can nest in peace and quiet. Underwater, it's also one of the last places where Caspian sturgeon can sleep peacefully. In 2012, the reserve was classified as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Visits are therefore regulated.

Striding across the 405 m-long pedestrian bridge over the Ural River is a walk in itself, and a pleasant way of crossing from Asia to Europe on foot, or vice versa. On the European bank, the bridge leads to the Pobedy Park, or Victory Park, a lungful of greenery for this small industrial town, as well as a popular place for strolling and relaxing. Numerous merry-go-rounds and small stalls make it a very popular spot for families on weekends.

Like the Almaty museum, the regional museum houses a "Golden Man". These are the golden weapons and armour of a Sarmatian chief discovered in the Atyrau region in 1999. Other highlights include the reconstruction of a yurt and its traditional interior, and a fresco depicting the region in the distant past when it was criss-crossed by Silk Road caravans. For the rest, there's nothing really exciting to discover.

A hundred kilometers northeast of the small sea lies the Zhamanshin crater, created a million years ago by the impact of a gigantic meteorite, making it one of the most recent and violent on the planet. The crater is almost 15 km long and 300 m deep. The energy released was equivalent to several dozen Hiroshima bombs, and the impact caused fires and smoke that wiped out all plant and animal species within a radius of several hundred kilometers.

Cabs to Fort-Shevchenko leave from the Aktau bus station in the north of the city.

It's a 250 km round trip, but well worth it. The fort occupies the tip of the Mangyshlak peninsula. A small local museum houses many works by the great Ukrainian poet exiled to the shores of the Caspian. The surrounding scenery is perfect for a stroll, provided you ignore the oil companies that occupy part of the coastline. It's all very photogenic.

It's especially worth a visit to discover the results of the many archaeological excavations carried out around Aktau, particularly at the Mangistau site. Ask the museum staff for a few explanations, as the presentation of the exhibits is a little lacking. For the rest, we'll pass quickly over the collections of small everyday objects dating from the ^19th and ^20th centuries and the stuffed animals. Mineral enthusiasts will delight in the fragments of meteorites and semi-precious stones gleaned here and there from the steppe.

The Ustyurt Plateau is a barren strip of land, hostile to the Siberian winds, stretching between the Aral Sea and the Caspian Sea, and covering part of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. It's a completely uninhabited area, with only a few villages surviving, once supplied by Moscow, and now surviving, populated by the last inhabitants who didn't have the opportunity to move elsewhere. The heat is overwhelming in summer and the cold is bitter in winter, especially when the wind blows. In short, it's not exactly a welcoming land, but it does offer some breathtaking scenery, particularly around the shores of the ancient Aral Sea. To explore the Ustyurt plateau, you'll need to hire a 4x4 vehicle. The best starting point is from Aktau, where a number of agencies and hotels can organize excursions. Make sure the driver knows the area well, as there are no roads, only tracks. Ask to push on to Bozjira, one of the country's most remote sites, far from any human activity. For several hundred kilometers, the snow-white chalky stones have taken on hallucinatory shapes, carved by rain and wind, and have become one of the Kazakh mouflon's most prized shelters. You may even be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of one. A true immersion in one of the most ghostly and lunar landscapes imaginable.

Before entering the museum, take the time to stroll down Tolebaev Street, between Shevchenko and Bogenbay Batyr. This street, with its cobbled, pedestrianized central alley lined with well-maintained streets used by often high-end vehicles, is the historic residential area of Almaty's elite. Sure, the buildings sometimes look old and decrepit, but in the 1970s and 1980s they were the best of the best. Prices and rents were among the highest in Almaty, and only the political classes and intelligentsia could afford to live there. Today, the past presence of these leading figures of the regime or of civil society is evoked by the large plaques, still very Soviet, which adorn the buildings on either side of the street: here a prima ballerina, here a general, further on a poet... A large part of Kazakhstan's recent official history passes by as you walk down Tolebaev Street.

At the corner with rue Bogenbay Batyr, on the left, is the apartment of Dinmukhamed Kounaev (1912-1993), First Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan from 1964 to 1986. The apartment is modest in size but richly decorated, especially with the many gifts received by the First Secretary from counterparts and heads of state.

Dinmukhamed Kunaev's apartment-museum. Ready for a trip back in time? The first room on the right is Kunaev's study, where you can admire his personal collection of lighters: no fewer than 467 of them, including two donated by Kennedy himself. On the desk you'll find the telephone that was once connected directly to the Kremlin, and a collection of old LPs, some of them autographed by artists, with Michael Jackson at the top of the pile.

In the dining room, note the massive sideboard, a gift from Leonid Brezhnev, topped by two elephant sculptures, gifts from Mahatma Gandhi. At the far end of the room, the armchairs still bear the shape of the august posteriors they supported during long evenings of political discussion around an old-fashioned radio. This is followed by the TV room and the bedroom, with its little make-up room for Madame, and the kitchen with all its vintage equipment.

On your way out, you can take a tour of the building's lobby, where all Kunaev's weapons and hunting trophies are on display.