Almaty

Almaty (/ˈælməti/; Kazakh pronunciation: [ɑlmɑˈtə] (About this soundlisten); Cyrillic: Алматы), or Alma-Ata (Russian: Алма-Ата), and formerly Verniy (Russian: Ве́рный) (1854–1921), is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million.[5] It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to 1997,[6] when the government relocated the capital to Akmola (renamed Astana in 1998, and Nur-Sultan in 2019).

Almaty is still the major commercial and cultural centre of Kazakhstan, as well as its most populous and most cosmopolitan city.[7] The city is located in the mountainous area of southern Kazakhstan near the border with Kyrgyzstan in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau at an elevation of 700–900 m (2,300–3,000 feet), where the Large and Small Almatinka rivers run into the plain.