For many centuries horse-riding peoples populated the steppes to the north of today's Almaty and the green hills to the south, but the city itself - formerly known as 'Alma-Ata' - is not even 180 years old. Its initial development was closely linked to the expansion of the Russian Empire. Today Almaty is Kazakhstan's largest metropolis, a vibrant milieu where the encounter between different cultures is also reflected in the architecture. Orthodox cathedrals and mosques, Soviet Neoclassicism and monumental mosaic art, Brutalism and brand-new skyscrapers: this book presents more than 100 buildings from the past and pre­sent. Author Edda Schlager has spent two ­decades in Almaty, covering the transformation of the city and the ­country as a journalist for inter­national media. Critical essays by and interviews with local actors contribute to her broad, ­kaleidoscopic panorama of one of the most fas­cinating Central Asian metropolises.