Basking At the Biological Museum At Al-Farabi Kazakh National University In Almaty

The main university in Almaty has a little biological museum, probably designed more for teaching students than hosting nerdy, weekend bio geeks. There's no ticket needed, no opening hours, no real entrance. One needs to track down an admin peep just to let you into the place. Worth it.

Vintage cool. A mix of dioramas, taxidermy, charts and dark, moody lighting.

Roaming tiger and a huge map of the biodiversity in Kazakhstan. Color coding is fun! A typical mix of dead things behind glass, dead things on stages.

Bio museums aren't just for animals. Behold the most sophisticated animal of all! Or, getting there. Still a work in progress.

Details of stone age life. Stoking the fire, developing your inner life. Being a cave man demands introspection.

What passes for a main entrance contains a wall size, tile mosaic, filled with glorious images of evolution. The highest level, the Ripped Man.

Visiting The Abilkhan Kasteev State Art Museum In Almaty

The main art museum in Almaty has a bit more than paintings on the walls. Some heirloom handicrafts, modern work, maybe even a little taxidermy in a corner. All in a snazzy, Soviet, International Style building.

Exterior, inviting.

Soaring interior. Glad we were invited! The main painting galleries do their best to transport you to an old world, stuffy, European atmosphere. The red works.

More paintings and a stern bust. Heavy.

The traditional Kazakh handicrafts are impressive. Great wool and wood work.

Putting a stuffed saiga antelope in the corner. Caution! Will not bite!

Learning The Kazakh ABCs At Ahmet Baitursynuly's House In Almaty

Ahmet Baitursynuly was a politician, wrote poetry, worked in education and, most notably, messed with the Kazakh alphabet. In 1912, he flushed the local alphabet of all Arabic letters and added a handful of new letters specific to the Kazakh language.

His yellow house. Folky.

The place is now a museum, a tribute to the master of letters. On display, about what you would expect. Some writings.

Some books.

And some portraits of The ABC Man. Take your pick, stone or oil.

Finally, a re-creation of all that hard, physical, action-packed work of creating a new alphabet. Dramatic!

Animal Attraction At The Almaty Nature Museum

Stuffed animals looking spiffy. The Nature Museum in Almaty has the usual circus of long dead animals on display, a chance for a safe encounter with a wild beast.

Hello fowl. Don't adjust your screen, the background is a blown up photo. It's too small a file and now heavily distorted. Or dreamy.

A group of animals that never hang out together. Seems like a class photo. At the watering hole.

Deer and more background fuzziness.

King of the hill? More like mayor of the mound. Fish glow.

Taxidermy bird, hard to get the flight trajectory believable. Maybe a Truman Show outtake.

Artifacts At Almaty's Academy of Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan

The Academy of Science building houses a few quirky museums. You've got spaces devoted to archeology, nature, books, history of science, whatever seems to be related to geeking out over the world around us. Let the research begin!

Archeology museum. Plenty of bones about it.

Emaciated elephant. Cutaway of a royal, Scythian, ceremonial burial. Yup, your horses get the honor of being buried with you. In case you need to gallop in the afterlife.

A diorama re-creation of great Silk Road era scholars, chatting on a veranda near a market. All great work was done in range of kebab and rug aromas.

Fun with foam and paint. Dioramas of dinosaur era landscapes. Looking a bit like seventh grade science fair presentations.

Bookmen. Either by hand written scroll or modern typewriter, the ideas flow.

Evolution In Dioramas At The State Museum In Almaty

Dioramas are great. You can create whatever world you want, present what is basically the artists' or craftsmens' work as fact. What did the world look like so long ago? Let's let the State Museum show us.

In the beginning, a lot of water and some volcanoes. Mostly, a 2D world.

Mmm, under that water, bursting life. It turns out, mostly squid. Progress on land and in the air. Rotting flora, emerging animals and a big dragonfly.

Dino arrival.

And dino turf wars. C'mon, isn't there enough land for every being?

The age of stone. Or is that guy on the left checking his Fred Flinstone-esque "smart" rock phone?

Seeing More Stuff At The State Museum In Almaty

Continuing a meander through the State Museum, more history and curiosities to see. 

Interior of a yurt. You can't call yourself a legit museum in Central Asia without a yurt.

Rural, domestic life. A dog day afternoon by the fields. Musical pleasures with handmade, wood instruments. On the left, a collection of the national instrument, the dombra.

About those fields. They're for cotton and it's woman's work to do the processing, spinning.

Other cultures, groups in Kazakhstan. Jewish religious articles, a pouch for a tallit, prayer shawl, and a set of Tefillin, leather boxes containing prayers. Ceremonial Korean dress.

Big Soviet-Kazakh memorial, tribute, diorama to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War.

Seeing Stuff At The State Museum In Almaty

Another museum, another expansive formal name: The Central State Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The place is a bit of a catch all, sort of like if all the Smithsonian museums were thrown into a juicer. Some history, ancient to recent. Fossils, dioramas, clothes, Soviet relics. Whatever says Kazakhstan for the past 10,000 years or so.

Grand entrance, classic Soviet era Brutalist architecture. With fresh flower beds.

Grand main lobby, atrium. So far, all grand. Mastodon skeleton. Missing a few pieces.

Time to get to some cool dioramas. How about a fierce, Silk Road era throw down battle?

Domestic life. Bending and strapping wood for thatch hut framing.

Ancient water works. Clever. Let your camel do the pumping.