From a 2,200-year-old hilltop to Timur’s greatest mausoleum and valleys of wild tulips.
Shymkent rewards the traveller who uses it as a hub. The city has two good walks; the country around it has four Silk Road sites and two mountain parks that would be famous anywhere with more visitors.
We have grouped the places below by type. Each has its own page with what to see, how to get there, practical tips and the tours that cover it.
In Shymkent Where the city began
A hill above the Koshkar-Ata stream where the original Silk Road settlement stood. Excavations here pushed the city’s official age back to more than two thousand years, and the site has been turned into an open-air museum with rebuilt walls, gates and viewpoints.
In Shymkent The green, strollable heart of Shymkent
Shymkent is at its best on foot in the evening: the monumental arch of Independence Park, the Zher-Ana column on Ordabasy Square, the pedestrian Arbat, the Ken Baba ethnopark and, further out, the lakes and shade of the Dendropark.
Silk Road day trips Kazakhstan’s holiest city and its greatest monument
About 170 km north-west of Shymkent, Turkistan grew around the tomb of the 12th-century Sufi poet Khoja Ahmed Yasawi. The colossal turquoise-domed mausoleum that Timur ordered built over it in 1389 is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the single must-see of southern Kazakhstan.
Silk Road day trips The city that brought the Mongols west
The mud-brick ruins of Otrar — the medieval Farab, home region of the philosopher al-Farabi — mark the spot where the killing of Genghis Khan’s envoys in 1218 triggered the Mongol invasion of Central Asia. Nearby stands the mausoleum of Arystan Bab, the teacher of Yasawi.
Silk Road day trips Ancient Ispijab on Shymkent’s doorstep
One of the oldest continuously inhabited towns in Kazakhstan, a few kilometres east of Shymkent. Sayram is a living, mostly Uzbek-speaking town of low mud-walled lanes, small mausoleums — including those of Yasawi’s parents — a medieval minaret and a busy bazaar.
Silk Road day trips 
Mountains & reserves Wild tulips and a canyon in the Western Tian Shan
Central Asia’s oldest nature reserve, founded in 1926, protects the Talas Alatau range east of Shymkent. It is famous for its wild Greig’s and Kaufmann’s tulips in April and May, for the deep Aksu canyon, and for ibex, bears and a rich birdlife.
Mountains & reserves Shymkent’s mountain backyard
The mountains you see from the city on a clear day. The national park covers gorges, juniper forest and alpine lakes south-east of Shymkent, with Sairam peak rising above 4,000 m; the Kaskasu valley is the easiest place to get into them for a day.
West and north-west: Turkistan, Otrar with Arystan Bab, and Sauran lie along the same axis and combine naturally — in one long day from Shymkent, or far better with a night in Turkistan.
East and south-east: Sayram is on the way out of the city; Aksu-Zhabagly and Sairam-Ugam are the mountain days.
For a day-by-day plan see the travel guide; for transport and guides, the tours page.
A Timurid mausoleum on the UNESCO list, the ruins of Otrar and wild tulip valleys — all within a day of Shymkent. Compare guided tours and day trips and book in a couple of taps.
