KYRGYSTAN, BISHKEK                         

            Ala-Too squra
          (площадь)






Our city is full of life and happiness,

Bishkek (in Kyrgyz and Russian: Бишкéк), formerly Pishpek and Frunze, is the capital and largest city of the Kyrgyz Republic. Bishkek is also the administrative centre of Chuy Province which surrounds the city, even though the city itself is not part of the province but rather a province-level unit of Kyrgyzstan.
According to the post-Soviet ideology, the name is thought to derive from a Kyrgyz word for a churn used to make fermented mare's milk (kumis), the Kyrgyz national drink, which is rather debatable. Founded in 1825 as a Khokand fortress of "Pishpek" to control local caravan routes and to get tribute from Kyrgyz tribes, on 4 September 1860 the fortress was destroyed by Russian forces led by colonel Zimmermann, with approval of the Kyrgyz. In 1868 a Russian settlement was founded on the fortress's spot, adopting its original name - Pishpek, within the General Governorship of Russian Turkestan and its Semirechye Oblast.

Outer neighbourhoods

The Dordoy Bazaar, just inside the bypass highway on the north-eastern edge of the city, is a major retail and wholesale market.

Outside the city

The Kyrgyz Ala-Too mountain range, some 40 kilometres (25 mi) away, provides a spectacular backdrop to the city; the Ala Archa National Park is only a 30 to 45 minutes drive away.

Climate

Bishkek has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dsa).^[6] Average precipitation is around 440 millimetres (17 in) per year. Average daily high temperatures range from 3 °C (37.4 °F) in January to about 31 °C (87.8 °F) during July.^[7] The summer months are dominated by dry periods experiencing the occasional thunderstorm which produces strong gusty winds and rare dust storms. The mountains to the south provide a natural boundary to provide protection from much of the damaging weather along with the smaller chain which runs NW to SE. In the winter months, sparse snow storms and frequent heavy fog are the dominating features. When an inversion sets up, the fog can last for days at a time.

[show]Climate data for Bishkek

Demographics

Bishkek is the most populated city in Kyrgyzstan. Its population, according to the Population and Housing Census of 2012, was 874,400. From the foundation of the city to the mid-1990s, the ethnic Russians and other peoples of European descent (Ukrainians, Tatars, Germans) represented the majority in the city. According to the 1970 Census, the ethnic Kyrgyz were only 12.3%, in the same time the whites were more than 80% of Frunze population. Nowadays, the urbanization and high natural growth of ethnic Kyrgyz and other Asian population, and emigration and low birth rates of Russian and other European population rapidly changed the demographic composition of Bishkek to become a predominantly Kyrgyz city. 66% of Bishkek dwellers are now Kyrgyz, and European peoples are less than 20% of the population.  

                                                    Done By: Chynara Aitmatova         Good Luck!