Below are some photos I’ve taken of interesting things and places while in Central Asia and the South Caucasus.
Azerbaijan
President Tokayev says: ‘It is necessary to return a good mood to Almaty’s people’, entrance to the bass room at the vector festival in the (labyrinthine) 24A Zenkov, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Inside the 1907 Ascension Cathedral, 56 metres high and made with wood but no nails, in central Almaty, Kazakhstan
The memorial to the Great Patriotic War in the park named after Panfilov’s 28 Guardsmen, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Former president Nursultan Nazarbayev decorating the Almaty metro
Elbasy watches over the First President’s park, Almaty, Kazakhstan
The view from the First President’s park, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Press to walk towards the Bayterek monument—and climb in to put your hand in a golden print of President Nazarbayev’s—towering over central Astana, Kazakhstan
The House of Ministers, Astana, Kazakhstan
A concrete column from Astana’s stop-start light rail project, overlooked by Ak Orda (the presidential mansion, right), the parliament (centre), and the sovereign wealth fund offices (the gold tower)
The dome of the huge Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, a 62 metre high pyramid designed by Foster and Partners to host Nazarbayev’s Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, Astana, Kazakstan
Nazarbayev is the globally recognised leader, says his Museum of the First President, now housed in the same huge building as his library, Astana, Kazakhstan
Karaganda has exemplary order and high culture, proclaims these recently re-lit signs near the central station, Karaganda, Kazakhstan
Miners’ Glory, a monument erected in 1974 in celebration of the oblast’s massive coal production, Karaganda, Kazakhstan
One of the city’s many intricate Soviet-era mosiacs, Karaganda, Kazakhstan
Nazarbayev’s portrait still sits below Kazakhstan’s flag in Aktobe’s own First President’s Park, by city’s cathedral, opened by Nazarbayev and Russian president Dmitrii Medvedev in 2008, Aktobe, Kazakhstan
Peace to the world, Aktobe, Kazakhstan
Murals to some of the area’s many women who became hereoes of the Great Patriotic War, Aktau, Kazakhstan
A mural celebrating Kyrgzystan’s membership of the OSCE, Bishkek
The Jogorku Kengesh (supreme council) of Kyrgyzstan, in Bishkek
The Dungan Mosque in Karakol, by Issyk Kul, Kyrgyzstan, built in 1910 for the town’s Dungans (muslims who fled China in the late 1800s)
Holy Trinity Cathedral in Karakol, by Issyk Kul, Kyrgyzstan, an Orthodox chruch dating from 1895 (with a church there since 1869) at Tsarist Russia’s easternmost Central Asian garrison town
Wild camping by Kol Tor lake, Kengeti gorge, Kyrgyzstan
Lenin watches over a municipal building in the fishing town of Balykchy, by Issyk Kul, Kyrgyzstan
‘The forest is the pride of our people’, on the walk to Altyn Arashan, Karakol, Kyrgyzstan
Political advertising in the run up to the 2024 parliamentary elections at Toshkent metro station, Tashkent, Uzebkistan
A space-age mural, Tashkent, Uzebkistan
Struggling under the weight of (cotton?) corruption, Tashkent, Uzebkistan
Sher-Dor Madrasah in the Registon square, Samarqand, Uzbekistan
Inside Tilya Kori Madrasah in the Registon square, Samarqand, Uzbekistan
Following the mobile ballot box during the 2024 parliamentary elections, Samarqand, Uzbekistan
Sprawling Tblisi, Georgia
The TV tower, Tblisi, Georgia
2004’s Holy Trinity Cathedral, Tblisi, Georgia
Worse-for-wear posters for a candidate from the ruling Georgian Dream, just by party HQ, Tblisi, Georgia
A lesser-seen view of the imposing Mother of Georgia, Tblisi, Georgia
The medieval fortress sits above the 1981-1985 Memorial of Georgian Warrior Heroes in Stalin’s hometown, Gori, Georgia
The Great Patriotic War memorial in Gori, which was attacked from the air and later occupied during Russia’s 2008 invasion of Georgia
From 2010 to May 2011, this was the tallest flagpole in the world, Baku, Azerbaijan
The 15th-century Palace of the Shirvanshahs, in the old city of Baku, Azerbaijan
Zaha Hadid’s 2012 Heydar Aliyev Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan
Ашраф Мурад, «Голосование» (‘Voting’), 1975, Museum of Modern Art, Baku, Azerbaijan
A captured Armenian/Artsakh armoured people carrier looks over downtown in the grimly-named ‘war trophies park’, a collection of equipment taken during Azerbaijan’s rapid advances during the 2020 Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, Baku, Azerbaijan
A monument to the dead from Britain’s lesser-known ‘Dunsterforce’, dispatched toward Ottoman-controlled Armenia in 1918 but which ended up fighting alongside an improbable and changing mix of Bolsheviks, White Russians, Cossacks, and Armenians trying to prevent Ottoman control of Baku’s oil
