Shymkent

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Shymkent (Шымкент) or Chimkent, is the capital city of Ongtustik Qazaqstan (South Kazakhstan) Province, the most populated region in Kazakhstan. It is the second largest city in Kazakhstan, 840,000, (2004), with the largest greater-metropolitan-area population.^{[citation needed]}^{[dubious — see talk page]} It is a major railroad junction on the Turkestan-Siberia Railway and a notable cultural centre. It is situated some 690 km west of Almaty at 42.303° N 69.573° E.

Shymkent is at the crossroads of two continents from a travellers point of view: it is where the major roads from Europe, China and India meet. The ancient silk road cities of Hazrat-e Turkestan and Sayram are nearby.

1 History
2 Demographics
3 Economy
4 Sights
5 Sister Cities
6 External links

[edit] History

Chimkent (Shymkent) was founded in 12th century as a stopping place on the Silk Road, and as a market centre for trade between nomads and the settled people of Uzbekistan, but was destroyed several times by nomad attacks. Once part of the Khanate of Kokand, it became part of the Emirate of Bukhara in 1810 and was then annexed by the Russian Empire in 1864. It was renamed Chernyaev in 1914 and renamed back Chimkent in 1924.

Chimkent and Shymkent are Uzbek and Kazakh variations of the same word, Chim (Shym) meaning turf, and Kent meaning city.

After Kazakhstan gained independence, the city was renamed Shymkent in 1993 as part of the government’s campaign to apply Kazakh names to cities. Interestingly, this created an ambiguity in city's name in the Russian language. (The formal spelling of Shymkent (Шымкент) as codified in Kazakhstan's Constitution goes against the Russian spelling rules of never having the letter ы follow the letter ш.) As a result, the new name Шымкент (Shymkent) is used only in Kazakhstan, while Russia and other countries using Russian language keep using the original spelling Чимкент (Chimkent). The spelling of proper nouns remains a topic of somewhat heated discussions among many present and former city inhabitants.

[edit] Demographics

The ethnic make-up of the city is as follows:-

Kazakhs 49.5%
Russians 24.6%
Uzbeks 15%
Tatars 2.7%
Others 8% (Azeris, Ukrainians, Koreans)

[edit] Economy

Formerly dominated by lead mining, industrial growth began in the 1930s and the city has industries producing refined lead and zinc, processed karakul pelts, textiles, foodstuffs, and pharmaceuticals. Also, the city has a medium size refinery. The Shymkent Refinery is owned and operated by PetroKazakhstan.