Almaty

Almaty (əlmä`tē), formerly Alma-Ata (ăl'mə-ətä`), city (1993 pop. 1,176,000), capital of Almaty prov., Kazakhstan, in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau. A terminus of the Turkistan-Siberia RR, Almaty is the industrial and cultural center of Kazakhstan and was for many years its capital; in 1997 the capital of Kazakhstan was moved to Astana. Leading industries include fruit canning, meatpacking, tobacco processing, and the repair of railroad equipment. Most of the inhabitants are ethnic Russians, with Kazakhs the next largest group. The city was founded in 1854 as a Russian fort and trade center known as Verny. It has been repeatedly struck by earthquakes and mud slides during its long history. Almaty has a university and is the site of the Kazakh Academy of Sciences. To the east is Ile-Alatau National Park.

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Almaty

 formerly Alma-Ata

City (pop., 1999: 1,129,400), southeastern Kazakhstan. Formerly the capital of Kazakhstan, it lost its capital status in 1995 to Aqmola (now Astana). The modern city was founded in 1854, when the Russians established a military fortification on the site of the ancient city of Almaty, destroyed by the Mongols in the 13th century. With the coming of the railroad in 1930, its population grew rapidly. In World War II (1939–45), heavy industry expanded widely as factories were evacuated to the site from European Russia. The city remains a major industrial centre.