Almaty Alive

I'm going to write something that, as a mathematician, I will cringe at. Not because the statement itself is cringe, but because I am going to use a term that is not well-defined. (Mathematicians are very stuck on having thorough and complete definitions for our terms.) Here goes: Almaty is alivifying.

The Almaty Central Mosque

Yes, I know that's not a word. And you don't know what I mean by it. That's the cringe part. But I hope through my post to flesh out the term.

I wonder what's in the bowl

Let me start with what I don't mean. I'm not saying Almaty is lively. Rather, I would say it is pretty chill. There is a very easygoing energy to the people here. And I'm not saying Almaty is alive. Of course, it is alive, it's not a dead city. But I don't just mean not dead. Nor do I mean vivacious or invigorating. Neither of those are the words I would use to describe Almaty.

View of the mountains on an apple in the apple city

So let's nail down more what I do mean. Almaty is the kind of city you could totally imagine living in. You'd be surrounded by life. Here are some of the alivifying elements:

The mountains seen not on an apple but still in the apple city

Nature: Almaty has nature on two levels. The city is in the alluvial plane of two rivers (cleverly named the Big Almaty River and the Little Almaty River) which flow down from the mountains. But the mountains are close. You can take a bus into the mountains. There you can hike, there are plenty of trails. There is a super long staircase that some people do every morning as an exercise. There is a high-altitude ice skating rink if that is your thing.

Hey, you got your classical architecture in my beautiful flowers!

But it isn't just outside the city. Within the city there is tons of nature to enjoy. There is a reservoir that the city turned into a park with paths all around it. Speaking of parks, Almaty is full of them. You seem to be able to find one within a few blocks of wherever you are. And these parks are full, full, full of flowers. I'm not just talking about wildflowers. These are arranged flower beds. Of course, we were in Almaty in the spring. Not all of these flowers would be blooming all year. But they are cultivated and sculpted (can we say sculptivated?) into beautiful geometric patterns.

Flowers, Trees, Nature!

And perhaps my favorite aspect of the nature is the trees. There are trees everywhere. You walk down the sidewalks and you are in the shade of a tree more than half the time. They seem to be on every street. This makes Almaty a fantastic city to talk walks in.

The interior of the Almaty Museum of Art

Art: Almaty has plenty of it. First and foremost, there is the Almaty Museum of Art. This is a museum of contemporary art. The cost of admission is only four dollars, and it is a great museum. Even the shape of walls is artistic. Normally, I don't think of myself as a fan of contemporary art. But I really loved the exhibits in the Almaty Museum of Art.

One exhibit was art by artists of Central Asia, particularly those of what are today former Soviet Republics. The art was from the period when the region was part of the USSR. Through the images, we learned a lot about the history of the period, how the Kazakhs and Uzbeks and the other peoples of Central Asia felt about the Soviet domination, the enforced programs that the USSR tried, and the changes to their own cultural identities.

You start to lose which way is which

Other exhibits were harder to explain. They were more about the experience, the sensual information you took in, or how they bent your senses. In a world where we see so much that upsets us, where we retreat into comfort, it is the artists who take on the anguish, the betrayal, the despair, and the hope.

So light it blows in the wind, except it's made of aluminum

In addition to the museum, Almaty is full of public art. We particularly enjoyed the Zodiac Monument with a camel at its center. There are stone circles for each of the animals, but the mouse isn't on his platform. Instead, he is standing on the head of the camel.

Hey, why isn't the mouse on his circle? Check out the camel's head.

On a side note, there are some differences between the Chinese Zodiac and the Kazakh Zodiac. The rat (Chinese) is a mouse (Kazakh). The tiger (Chinese) is a snow leopard (Kazakh). Both of those are changes, but changes to a similar animal. The biggest difference is that the dragon of the Chinese Zodiac is the snail in the Kazakh Zodiac.

A snail? Really?

There are monuments commemorating people and events. I saw a statue of Ghandi, a plinth commemorating the Chernobyl disaster, and plenty of images of men and women at war. Plus there are many interesting and varied fountains dotting Almaty.

Chernobyl Monument

Plus there are murals on walls throughout the city. And the architecture here can be very classical and commanding or very modern and unusual. One sumptuous piece of architecture is the Ascension Cathedral.

Ascension Cathedral

The cathedral is located right in the middle of a park. The outside is painted in primary colors with a beautiful roof. And the inside is full of iconography. The main altar is quite lovely and it is flanked on all sides by paintings of religious scenes. What's interesting is that some of the words or names on the art in the cathedral is in a mix of Cyrillic and Latin letters. Like the same name will be in both. For example we saw one with COΦIA. This is the name Sofia, but the C for S and the Φ for F.

The main altar of the cathedral

Family: Almaty has a lot of family friendly locations. One day we went to Kok Tobe. This is a small mountain that touches the city proper, just on its southern side. You can take a cable car from the central city up to the top. There you are rewarded with wonderful views of the city and the mountains further south. But you can also enjoy restaurants, a Ferris wheel, bumper cars, a roller coaster, a haunted house, and plenty of other carnival activities and games. There's also a Beatles monument for fans of the Fab Four.

View of Almaty from Kok Tobe

Another day we headed to a park on the east side of the central city. Here is where we found the Zodiac Monument. But there are plenty of rides, games, and food stalls here. There is a skating rink, an upside down house, and a zoo. We visited the zoo. It was okay. They have a lot of animals, but the animals have very little space about which they can roam. That was a shame.

I think the architect made a big mistake!

Not all of these family friendly attractions are exclusively for children. Almaty has lots of bike lanes. In some of the parks, there are these columns that are opened during the day and are full of books. You can just take a book, hit a bench, and read. (If you know how to read Kazakh.) There is exercise equipment in many of the parks.

Anyone can read a book

I really enjoyed Almaty more than I thought I would. One day, we will have to come back. I'm interested to find out how their language transition goes. Kazakh has historically been written in the Arabic Alphabet, then the Latin Alphabet, and then the Cyrillic Alphabet. The government is in the process of transitioning back to the Latin Alphabet. They feel it is the best choice for an increasingly technological world. But there is a lot of resistance among the people. The plan calls for the transition to be complete by 2031. I wonder how it will go. Right now, all the street signs are in Cyrillic. The names are listed in both Kazakh and Russian, but both are written in Cyrillic.

What do you think? A metaphor for a feeling of emptiness now that I've left Almaty?

I hope I have better defined what I meant by Almaty being alivifying. I did my best to be elucidatory. Whatever that means.