Levoberezhny Park

Top choice in Kazakhstan


This large park on the south bank of the Irtysh contains several interesting exhibits and is well worth a couple of hours of your time. Moving west from the entrance through still-growing botanical gardens you reach the Ethnographical Exhibition, which comprises houses in the traditional styles of over a dozen of Kazakhstan's ethnic groups, from Chechens and Tatars to Koreans and Uyghurs.

Returning eastward along the northern side of the park, you encounter pavilions with exhibits on WWII heroes, the Afghan War and the Chernobyl 'Liquidators' – those involved in the 'clean-up' operation after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine. Returning towards the entrance past a long alley of Soviet weaponry, you'll find a collection of Soviet-era statues – multiple Lenins but also artistic figures such as Mayakovsky, Gorky and even Tolstoy – assembled against a backdrop of the shiny blue domes of one of Ust's mosques.