Experience the best of Shymkent

Shymkent lies in the south of Kazakhstan on the old Silk Road, close to the border with Uzbekistan and not far from Tashkent. The city is warmer and greener than the steppe far to the north, and it sits at the foot of the western Tian Shan mountains, which rise to the east. It is a mixed city, where Kazakh, Uzbek, Russian and other communities have long lived side by side.

The city has a large dendrological park with tree-lined walks, a zoo, and big open bazaars. Beyond the city, Sairam-Ugam National Park covers mountain valleys with walnut forest and snow peaks, and Aksu-Zhabagly, Kazakhstan's oldest nature reserve, shelters Tian Shan wildlife. Turkestan, with its great mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, a World Heritage site, lies to the north-west.

Beshbarmak, boiled meat on wide noodles, is the national dish, and Shymkent adds plov, samsa baked in clay ovens, manti dumplings and kumys, fermented mare's milk. The summer heat is dry, winters are short and cold, and in April wild tulips bloom on the mountain foothills.