national park
Ala Archa National Park
A stunning alpine gorge just outside Bishkek with glaciers, waterfalls, and trekking routes in the Tien Shan range.
26 km · about 30 min drive
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan · Asia
Bishkek is worth a stop: 10 minutes from Mayevka, 26km from Ala Archa National Park.
Bishkek is a city located in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. With a population of 900,000, it is an important destination in Asia.
On a road trip, Bishkek sits in Kyrgyzstan. It's in the Asia/Bishkek time zone. Below you'll find where to stay, things to do nearby, and everything you need to add Bishkek to your route.
Bishkek, formerly known as Pishpek (until 1926), and then Frunze (1926–1991), is the capital and largest urban city of Kyrgyzstan. The city is also the capital of the Chüy Region. It is situated near the border with Kazakhstan and has a population of around 1,200,000 people as of 2024.
The Khanate of KokandRead more
established the fortress of Pishpek in 1825 to control local caravan routes and to collect tribute from Kyrgyz tribes. On 4 September 1860, with the approval of the Kyrgyz, Russian forces led by Colonel Apollon Zimmermann destroyed the fortress. In the present day, the fortress ruins can be found just north of Jibek Jolu Street, near the new main mosque. A Russian settlement was established in 1868 on the site of the fortress under its original name, Pishpek. It lay within the General Governorship of Russian Turkestan and its Semirechye Oblast.
The Kara-Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast was established in 1925 in Russian Turkestan, promoting Pishpek to its capital. In 1926, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union renamed the city Frunze, after Bolshevik military leader Mikhail Frunze (1885–1925), who was born there. Frunze became the capital of the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic in 1936, during the final stages of national delimitation in the Soviet Union. In 1991, the Kyrgyz parliament changed the capital's name to a modified original name of Pishpek as Bishkek.
Bishkek is situated at an altitude of about 800 metres (2,600 ft), just off the northern fringe of the Kyrgyz Ala-Too Range, an extension of the Tian Shan mountain range. These mountains rise to a height of 4,895 metres (16,060 ft). North of the city, a fertile and gently undulating steppe extends far north into neighbouring Kazakhstan. The river Chüy drains most of the area. Bishkek is connected to the Turkestan–Siberia Railway by a spur line.
Bishkek is a very large city of wide boulevards and marble-faced public buildings combined with numerous Soviet-style apartment blocks surrounding interior courtyards. There are also thousands of smaller, privately built houses, mostly outside the city centre. Streets follow a grid pattern, with most flanked on both sides by narrow irrigation channels, which provide water to trees which provide shade during the hot summers.
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Bishkek is located in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Asia. The coordinates are 42.8700 latitude, 74.5900 longitude.
Bishkek has a population of approximately 900,000 people, making it a city in Kyrgyzstan.
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1 notable place within an hour's drive.
national park
A stunning alpine gorge just outside Bishkek with glaciers, waterfalls, and trekking routes in the Tien Shan range.
26 km · about 30 min drive
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