Things To Do In Bishkek

Things to do in Bishkek

Bishkek is a leafy, Soviet-planned capital with the snow-capped Ala-Too range rising behind it, and the base for trips into Kyrgyzstan's mountains.

Ala-Too Square is the city's centre, with the statue of Manas, the hero of the national epic, and a changing of the guard at the flagpole every hour during the day. The State History Museum, behind it, covers the nomadic past and the Soviet era.

Walk through Oak Park, with its open-air sculptures, Panfilov Park, and along the tree-lined boulevards of Erkindik and Chuy. The Osh Bazaar, west of the centre, is the city's biggest and most chaotic market: dried fruit, spices, felt hats, kalpaks, and everything else.

Ala Archa National Park, about 40 kilometres south, is the easiest mountain escape: trails climb from the park gate along a river valley towards glaciers, from short walks to a hard full day up to the Ak-Sai waterfall and beyond.

The Burana Tower, about an hour east, is an eleventh-century minaret, all that remains of the Silk Road city of Balasagun, surrounded by a field of stone balbal grave figures. Many travellers stop here on the way to Issyk-Kul.