Place:Shymkent, Yuzhno Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan

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Shymkent (; Шымкент, Şymkent), known until 1993 as Chimkent (; Yañalif: Çimkent);, is a city in Kazakhstan. It is near the border with Uzbekistan. It is one of three Kazakh cities which have the status equal to that of a region (“city of republican significance”). It is the third-most populous city in Kazakhstan, behind Almaty and Nur-Sultan, with an estimated population of 1,002,291 . According to regional and city officials, the millionth resident of Shymkent was born on 17 May 2018. It is a regional cultural centre.

Shymkent is situated west of Almaty and south of Nur-Sultan. It is also to the north of Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

History

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Shymkent was founded in the twelfth century as a caravanserai to protect a nearby Silk Road trade town, Sayram, 10 km to the east. Shymkent grew as a market center for trade between Turkic nomads and the settled Sogdians. It was destroyed several times: by Genghis Khan, soldiers from the southern Khanates, and by nomad attacks. In the early 19th century, it became part of the khanate of Kokand before it was captured by the Russians in 1864. It was renamed Chernyaev in 1914 and renamed Shymkent in 1924. Following the Russian conquest, Shymkent was a city of trade between nomadic Turks and sedentary Turks, and was famous for its kumis.

Shymkent was founded as a hub for economic development in South Kazakhstan in the 20th century, and rapid growth was evolving in the second half of the century. To date, there are about 70 factories, plants and other manufacturing companies in the area.

A settlement on the territory of modern Shymkent already existed at the turn of the 11th – 12th centuries. At the same time, there is a hypothesis about its earlier establishment based on the burials found during the archaeological excavations, which, according to experts, date back to the 5th – 6th centuries. In the sources that have reached our time, the Central Asian historian Sharaf ad-din Yazdi (1425) first mentioned Shymkent in the book Zafar Name (Book of Victories), when describing the military campaigns of Timur.

Chimkent (Shymkent), as a city-settlement already existed in the 6th century AD. Its name links to the famous traveler Xuan Jiang, who mentioned it in his notes about Isfijab - Sairam.

It is widely believed that the city existed in the 12th century. This information is taken from the book of A. Dobrosmyslov "Cities of the Syr-Darya region", where he reports the following: "The name of the city of Chimkent comes from the words chim - sod and kent - city. Indigenous people of Chimkent relate the time of its establishment to the 12th century, referring to the grave of St. Baba Dervish, a contemporary of Khoja Ahmet Yasawi."

In 1914, in honour of the 50th anniversary of Shymkent becoming part of the Russian Empire, the city was named Chernyaev, but in 1924 the Soviet authorities returned to the city its former name.

A lead plant was built in Shymkent in the 1930s. It accounted for 70% of the total lead produced in the Soviet Union. An oil and fat plant, a hosiery and a mirror factory were commissioned. In 1932, an agricultural aviation base was created, which led to the creation and development of the city airport.

During the Second World War, a number of Soviet industrial enterprises were evacuated in Shymkent. From the front line, 17 plants and factories were relocated here. The city produced spare parts for tanks, shells, metal, lead for bullets, optical instruments and other products. Seven Shymkent residents were awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

There was a gulag near Shymkent, and as a result, many Russian-speaking people came to the area through imprisonment in that gulag.

In January 2015, Shymkent officials sent a request to UNESCO to be recognized as an ancient city.

Until 2018, Shymkent was the administrative center of South Kazakhstan Region. On 19 June 2018 it was taken out of South Kazakhstan Region and subordinated directly to the government of Kazakhstan. As a result, the administrative center of the region is moved to Turkistan, and the region was renamed as Turkistan Region.

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