Skip to content
Mixroutes
Shymkent
City in Kazakhstan

Shymkent

Shymkent is a city in southern Kazakhstan, close to the border with Uzbekistan.

Plan a trip to Shymkent→From Turkıstan

Shymkent is the third-largest city in Kazakhstan, and serves as a regional cultural and economic center. Administratively, it is one of three cities of republican significance in Kazakhstan, the others being Almaty and Astana. Geographically, Shymkent lies approximately 690 kilometres (430 mi) west of Almaty, 1,483 kilometres (921 mi) south of Astana, and 120 kilometres (75 mi) north of Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Historically, Shymkent dates back to at least the twelfth century, although some archeological finds date back to over 2000 BCE, and it sat along the caravan route of the Silk Road, connecting Central Asia to China, and now functions as a major railway junction for the region. The city also hosts Shymkent International Airport, which connects to various domestic and international destinations.

Get in

Getting to Shymkent

  1. 01
    Shymkent International Airport
  2. 02
    Shymkent

    The journey takes approximately 12 hr, 2,400 tenge (Aug 2012).

See

Worth seeing

  1. 01
    Shymkent hillfort Shym-Qala

    Place was settled in the 5th century BC by arias due to proper relief and water source then developed in Citadel which was destroyed and rebuild many times.

  2. 02
    Museum of Turkestan Region

    Used to be in old city center, moved to the new building with all archaeological exhibitions and collections which are great.

  3. 03
    Art
  4. 04
    Private Carpet Museum

    It is a private museum located in a basement of an old Soviet building.

  5. 05
    Shymkent Zoo

    Wide variety of steppe and desert species, lots of shade.

  6. 06
    Old mosque in Old

    Imanov street 68\2.

Do

Things to do

Shymkent marathon usually takes place on the second Sunday of September. Mega Planet: most popular youth hangout place in town, a mall with indoor skating rink, movie theater, Western-style chain grocery store and an upstairs food court. On Tauke-Khan avenue. Spartak - awesome outdoor swimming pool, soccer field and basketball court. Across from Mega on Tauke-Khan avenue.

  1. 01
    Russian Drama

    Renovated Russian drama theatre offers wide variety of plays.

Eat

Where to eat

Shymkent is all about eating and drinking. Among local Kazakhstani people Shymkent has a reputation of a gastronomic center. It is relatively easy to find proper place to eat just check if it is crowded or not. It is crowded so people like it and food is fresh. Generally every market has huge pedestrian traffic and many places to eat cheap and good food.

How locals move

Getting around Shymkent the local way

  • Get inFrom there, you can take buses from 35-40 tenge for a marshrutka to the center.
  • Get around"Marshrutkas" are mini-buses that run largely the same routes as the buses.
  • Go nextMarshrutka number 140 also runs to Sairam from the Aina bus stop (not from the Avtovokzal) and costs 70 tenge.
  • Go nextThere are marshrutkas and taxis waiting for passengers.
  • Go nextA shared taxi to the border is about 1,400 tenge.
  • Go nextThe marshrutka goes to the main Avtobeketi (АвтоБекеті) in Saryagash.
  • Go nextThe ride is comfortable and the border crossing smoother than in shared taxis, and unlike the taxis they also go all the way to Tashkent.
  • Go next15-man marshrutkas leave from Samal station, 5 km north-west of the city centre.

From Wikivoyage: Shymkent, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-07.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons (see file page), Wikimedia Commons.