City
Zharkent
Southeast Kazakhstan • Kazakhstan • 633 m
Zharkent is a small town of about 40'000 inhabitants, mostly Uyghurs (53%) and Kazakhs (38%) situated around 30 km from the Chinese border on the road Almaty-Horgos A353.
Zharkent's history dates back centuries. Formerly, the city was one of the fortified points of the Great Silk Road, as evidenced by archaeological finds. Historians claim that it was in these regions that the battles of the Dzungars with the Kazakhs took place.
In 1881, General Kuropatkin was instructed to find a place to establish a Russian county center in this region. Thus, on the site of the ancient Uyghur villages appeared Jarkent, which acquired city status in 1892. The city was inhabited mainly by Cossacks, who guarded the eastern borders of Russia against a neighbor of the Middle Empire, and the Uyghurs were the first "shuttle merchants".
From 1942 to 1991 the city was named Panfilov, and in 1991 it was renamed Zharkent again.
Sights to visit are the old mosque and the old church, the Military museum and the Art Gallery Abylhana Kasteeva.