Colonial Buildings
The older part of town sprawls southwest from the cathedral with numerous simple but archetypal ‘gingerbread’ timber houses. A few are comparatively grand former homes of Russian merchants and industrialists, including whats now the Pedagogical College on Gagarin (opposite the cath
Ala
Surveyed by a triumphant statue of Manas, Bishkeks nominal centre is architecturally neo-brutalist in style, but it has a perversely photogenic quality especially when slowly goose-stepping soldiers change the guard beside the soaring national flagpole. That happens every two hours
Cave Museum
What appears to be a gigantic Georgian ladys-bonnet protrudes from a southwestern crag of Suleiman Too. This marks the exit hole of a cave within which a museum attempts to illustrate the regions histo-religous development. However, its most interesting for the glass-sphere lamps a
Osh Bazaar
Osh Bazaar is one of Central Asia’s biggest markets dealing in everything from traditional hats and knives to seasonal fruit to horseshoes forged at the smithies in the bazaar. Many stalls are crafted from old container boxes and banal warehouse architecture, but theres a fascinati
Holy Trinity Cathedral
Set peacefully amid trees, this hefty wooden structure is topped with green roofed towers and almost-golden onion domes. The 1872 stone original was destroyed by an 1890 earthquake. Built on the same foundations a new wooden version, finished in 1895, was turned into a club by the
Dom Babura
The one-room Dom Babura is a 1989 reconstruction of an historic prayer-room whose tradition dates back to 1497. In that year the 14-year-old Zahiruddin Babur of Fergana built himself a little prayer-retreat here. Later famed as projenitor of the Mogul Dynasty, Baburs place of priv
State Historical Museum
Thrillingly for Sovietophiles, this 1984 marble-faced cube still retains many splendidly stirring faux-bronze/copper reliefs and bold ceiling murals reflecting the buildings former purpose as a state-of-the-art Lenin Museum. Mixed in are a series of photos and mementos from the 201
Twin Waterfall
A string of souvenir stalls leads to this 23m waterfall. Though the falls themselves are only worth a quick look, you can escape the summer crowds by walking on for 15 minutes using the path that crosses the stream on a concrete plank-bridge immediately above. This zigzags up throu
Prezhevalski Garden
To overlook the Pristan area (though not the beach) it is worth stopping around 1km before the port and observing the scene from the shrine-like Prezhevalski memorial garden. Other than the minor curiosity of the view , the main attraction here is a small, well-presented museum ded
Kumtor Gold Mine
Amid eternal snows at a phenomenal 4200m altitude, Kumtor is the worlds eighth-largest gold field and produces an estimated 12% of Kyrgyzstans GDP. Throughout summer 2013 protestors clashed with police while barricading the access road and attempting to cut power supplies to the mi
Kök
From Jeti-Öghüz Kurort, an unpaved road (impassable with snow from November to March or later) climbs through a dainty pine-dappled valley, crossing and recrossing a gurgling stream on four log bridges. It emerges after around 4km onto a grassy mountainside with joyous Sound-of-Mus
Waterfalls
If youre just here to relax, its worth sampling the villages schizophrenic atmosphere at Arslanbobs signature waterfalls. Neither are especially memorable per se but the excitable local tourists buying candy-floss, yoghurt-balls and dodgey ice creams are fun to observe. And just wa
Seven Bulls
One of Kyrgyzstans most photographed natural features, the Seven Bulls (Jeti-Öghüz) is an abrupt serrated ridge of ferric-red sandstone cliffs that have been vertically diced into a series of rounded bluffs. The formation isnt especially big, but it looks particularly striking in l
Karakol Animal Market
Early on Sunday mornings one of Kyrgyzstans biggest animal markets takes place around 2km north of central Karakol. Typical of such markets, youll observe scenes at once sad and comical, with locals improbably bundling voluptuous fat-tailed sheep into the back seats of Lada cars. T
Suleiman Too
This five-peaked rocky crag seems to loom above the city wherever you go. It has been a Muslim place of pilgrimage for centuries, supposedly because the Prophet Mohammed once prayed here. Its slopes are indented with many a cave and crevice each reputed to have different curative o
Petroglyphs
Directly north of the former airport runway (now a wide road) is an extensive field of glacial boulders, many with pictures scratched or picked into their surfaces. Some of these petroglyphs date from the late Bronze Age (about 1500 BC), but most are Saka-Usun (8th century BC to 1s
Doing business & staying in touch while in Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan: Doing business & staying in touch
Kyrgyzstan Weather, Climate and Geography
Kyrgyzstan Weather, climate and geography
Kyrgyzstan History, Language and Culture
Kyrgyzstan History, Language and Culture
Kyrgyzstan Travel Guide and Travel Information
Kyrgyzstan Travel Guide
