Astana is the new capital city of Kazakhstan situated in the cold steppe of the northern part of the country. It is a completely new city, built since the year 1996. The president Nursultan Nasarbaiev ordered it and the petrodollars helped to accomplish his vision. Astana practically smells of oil money, and its ultra-modern, uber-futuristic architecture is absolutely amazing. Sprouting up from the middle of the steppe, with nothing around but grassy flatlands, you can see why they call it “The Dubai Of The Steppe”. Astana at the 6. July. At this day "The Day of the Capital" and the birthday of president Nasarbaiev are celebrated in the city. At other days there is only few life in Astana: the streets are quite empty. Comparing to the size of the city there are too few cafes and restaurants. The development of infrastructure facilities in Astana couldn't keep pace with the progress of construction work. The Hazrat Sultan Mosque is the largest and for me the most beautiful mosque in Central Asia. The colossal building resembles an oriental palace and is able to house up to 10,000 people. The mosque dome is 51 meters in height and 28 meters in diameter. The main dome is surrounded by eight small ones, at the mosque corners there are four 77 m-high minarets. The 4-days trekking in the Ile-Alatau National Park surprisingly turned out to be one of the highlights of my journey. This was up to the beauty of the landscape: lush Alpine meadows, forests of the bolt upright Schrenk's spruce and glaciated 5,000 m high pics. There were no other hikers in the mountains and the whole time sunny weather: the best preconditions for a great trekking tour. Even at the elevation of 3,200 m were the meadows in North Tian-Shan full of flowers. Nowhere in the world I see mountain meadows with such a profusion of flowers. The lush meadows are prime habitat for many butterflies. Especially the beautiful Apollos (genus Parnassius) are very common here: 16 of the 40 species of these butterflies distributed throughout the world are resident in the Tian-Shan. On the way to Tourists Pass (3,960 m) the vegetation got sparser and only close to the stream something lusher. At the beginning of July the high pass was covered with wet snow and thus not traversable. Nevertheless the main purpose of this tour was achieved: the acclimatization to high elevations. Because I climbed to over 3,800 m and slept at 3,500 m I didn't have any problems with the high altitude sickness by my subsequent helicopter tour to Khan-Tengri base camp at almost 4,100 m. Almaty is the old capital city of Kazakhstan located in the mountainous area in the south of the country. Other than the artificial Astana this city evolved naturally over long time period and thus was full of life with a lot of people on the streets, many cafes and restaurants. Almaty remains the major commercial and cultural centre of Kazakhstan, as well as its biggest population center (ca. 1,6 millions citizens). Zenkov Cathedral, a 19th-century Russian Orthodox cathedral, is the second tallest wooden building in the world. The cathedral survived the 1911 earthquake with minimal damage, even though it was built without any nails. Almaty exhibits modern architecture too, although by far not so much money are spent for new buildings as in Astana. The both Kazakh cities were a notch above other cities I saw in the Central Asia. And their citizens seemed to be more wealthy and cosmopolitan too. Young women carrying miniskirts was a quite common view in the hot summer in Almaty, something what would be impossible to see in other countries. The Khan-Tengri base camp in Kyrgyzstan was situated at an elevation of almost 4.100 m. This picture shows, that the tents are pitched on the glacier which is covered with a thick layer of debris. It was planed, that I stay only 2 days in the base camp, but because of the helicopter schedule I could enjoy the alpine landscape of Central Tian-Shan whole 5 days. Khan Tengri (7,010 m) is the world's most northern 7,000-metre peak, notable because peaks of high latitude have a shorter climbing season, generally more severe weather and thinner air. Many people consider Khan Tengri the world's most beautiful peak because of its geometric ridges and its symmetry. May be it was the reason, why almost all mountaineers in the base camp wanted climb it and not the Peak Pobeda, with 7,439 m the highest mountain in the Tian-Shan. Inside of one of the many ice caves on the Engilchek glacier. The floor in the cave was as smooth as glass, but normally one could walk on the flat and with debris covered glacier without crampons and ice ax. On the huge Engilchek glacier one could explore many meltwater rivers and lakes. The most famous lake is the Merzbacher Lake, often called the "Disappearing Lake" because it drains every year as the ice melts. An ice dam prevents the lake from draining through the majority of the year however when a hole finally melts through the dam the lake drains within three days, creating major flooding downstream. A shot of Engilchek glacier taken from helicopter. The South Engilchek Glacier ranks as the sixth longest non-polar glacier in the world and is the largest and fastest moving glacier in Kyrgyzstan. Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan, was from all capital cities in Central Asia the one least impressive. Soviet style buildings and monstrous monuments still dominates the town picture. For me the most beautiful feature in Bishkek were the vast city parks. Wide and green mountain valleys with Kyrgyz herdsmen, their yurts and animals were the typical sights during the Terskej-Alatau traverse. All together this trekking tour took 9 days. Unfortunately I was forced to spend 2 whole days in the tent because of strong rain. 3 almost 4,000 m high passes had to be crossed. This picture was taken by descend from the first pass Archa-Tor (3,930 m). A scenic sunset over the Jeti Oguz valley after a rainy day. The strong rainfall began already at the afternoon of previous day, so that me and 2 other trekkers were forced to ask for the accommodation in a shepherd's yurt to dry our cloths at the herd. Because at the next day the strong rain continued we spent all in all 2 nights by the herdsman family and drunk there a lot of kumis (a fermented dairy product traditionally made from mare's milk). The Karakol river pours out widely in the scenic Karakol Valley. The whole valley is protected as a national park and probably for this reason it looks much more pristine than the valleys used as pasture ground. It was particularly much densely forested. The Ala-Kul Lake (3530 m) seen from the pass of the same name (3920 m). Literally, the name Ala-kul means 'variegated lake'. The clean lake water mirrors the clouds in the sky giving the impression to be variegated. In the Altyn Arashan Valley the tired long distance trekkers are awarded with showers and hot springs. Up the valley, the view is dominated by a picture-perfect view of the snow-topped 4,260m Palatka (‘Tent’) peak. The shores of the Issyk Kul Lake are overgrown with thick bushes of sea buckthorn, which at the beginning of August already carried their yellow fruits. It is the tenth largest lake in the world by volume (though not in surface area). The Issyk Kul Lake is situated at an altitude of 1,607 meters. The lake has no current outlets, so its water is light salty. Light effects announce summer thunder storm at the Issyk Kul Lake. Although the lake is surrounded by snow-capped peaks, it never freezes; hence its name, which means "hot lake" in the Kyrgyz language. The Ala Archa National Park is located only 40 km south of Bishkek and thus it is a popular recreation area for the residents of the Kyrgyzstan's capital city. The summits in the national park don't exceed the 5,000 meters boundary but there are some imposing walls, appreciated by the rock climbers. The confluence of the rivers Ala-Archa and Ak Sai. Along the small Ak Sai river a rough and steep path climbs to a stone hut called Ratsek at 3,300 meters, a beautiful camping spot. At dusk an herd of Siberian ibexes came out to feed near the Ratsek hut. Those ibexes were the only big wild mammals I saw in the mountains of Central Asia. Unfortunately the mountain animals got seldom because of the heavy poaching after the fall of Soviet Union, from which the live stock recovers only very slowly. Khujand is the second-largest city of Tajikistan, situated on the surprising clean Syr Darya River. The heart of the ancient city is its castle. Over 2,500 years, the Khujand fortress expanded together with the city, was destroyed by the conquerors, rebuilt anew, but always continued to be a symbol of endurance of the people. Sunset at one of the Kul-i Kalon lakes in the Fann Mountains. This mountain ridge is actually an arid area but the weather during my 7 days trekking tour was quite wet and unstable. I was even forced to spend one day in my tent due the rain and storm. There was even a snow fall by crossing of the 3,860 m high Alaudin pass to the lakes of the same name. Although the Alaudin lakes were very scenic, the vegetation around them was very damaged due to overgrazing by domestic animals. Particularly endangered were the juniper forests above 2,000 m, because they supply an excellent fire wood. The quite unknown Fann Mountains achieve the dimension of Caucasus: the highest peak is Chimtarga at 5,489 m. During my stay in the mountains the weather was very changeable: the high peaks appear and disappear in the clouds in the fast sequence. The most northern from the 7 lakes on the Shing River in the west part of Fann Mountains. Although situated close to each other the lakes has different water colors; the one of the photo reveals an violet tint. View of the Palace of Nation (Presidential Palace) in Dushanbe. Despite the fact, that Tajikistan is the poorest country in Central Asia, its capital city looks better than the capital cities of some other countries, and much better than other cities in Tajikistan. In Varzob Valley north of Dushanbe many new-rich Tajiks built impressing palaces. Because there is almost no industry in the country many people argue, that they was financed with drug money. Sharing well over 1,000km of porous border with the world's largest opium producer (Afghanistan), it's hardly surprising, that Tajikistan became the heroin highway. Young Tajik women in Dushanbe wearing the traditional dress: long shapeless attire prepared with brilliant and showy color patterns along with the matching pants. Women using scarfs to cover all their hairs are much more seldom seen than e.g. Germany, although the majority of the population in Tajikistan are Muslims. Mountains in the Romit State Nature Reserve near Dushanbe. The reserve was founded in 1959 to protect the rich forests and the population of the endangered Bactrian deer. After achieving the independence the government of Tajikistan allowed settlement inside the protected area (!). The results were unregulated grazing, wood gathering, and illegal hunting. It's actually a joke, that this area officially still is titled as nature reserve. The Shah-i-Zinda Ensemble in Samarkand in Uzbekistan, with a half of million people the biggest city on the Silk Road. It includes mausoleums and other ritual buildings of 9-14th and 19th centuries. The Bibi-Khanym Mosque was built in the 15th century and at this time it was one of the largest and most magnificent mosques in the Islamic world. From the beginning this huge mosque revealed problems with statics: already after few years the first bricks had begun to fall out of the huge dome. Despite of many restorations during the centuries the huge building still gives a dilapidated impression. The Tilya-Kori Madrasah means in Persian "Gilded". Together with 2 other madrasahs (Islamic schools) it frames a public square called Registan in heart of the ancient city of Samarkand. On this square people gathered to hear royal proclamations, heralded by blasts on enormous copper pipes. It was a place of public executions too. The big Kalon Mosque and Kalon Minaret in Bukhara. The minaret is also known as the Tower of Death, as arguably for centuries criminals were executed by being thrown off the top. The dome cross-point ceiling of the Khanaka of Nadir Divan-begi (1619/20). Due to its location and the hall with wonderful acoustic, this building has been the cultural and religious center of Bukhara throughout many centuries. Crenellated brick walls surround the rectangular fortress of Khiva, with only 50,000 residents the smaller city on the silk road I visited in Uzbekistan. One overlooked Silk Road commodity was the trade in slaves and Khiva ran the biggest slave market in Central Asia into the 19th century. Islom-Hoja Medressa and minaret, at 57 m tall it's Uzbekistan highest minaret. With bands of turquoise and red tiling, it looks rather like an uncommonly lovely lighthouse. The Senate building in Tashkent, the capital city of Uzbekistan and with a population of over 2 millions people the biggest city in the Central Asia. On 26 April 1966, much of the city was destroyed by a huge earthquake. People from the whole Soviet Union helped to rebuild devastated Tashkent. The outcome was quite good: the city wide streets planted with shade trees, parks, immense plazas looks better than e.g. in Bishkek. Chorsu Bazaar is Tashkent's most famous farmers market. If it grows and it's edible, it's here. Because the bazaars in Central Asia are so popular by the local people the western style supermarkets have big problems to establish themselves as trading centers in the cities.