The entrance arcade
A semicircle of arches at the gate.
Anton Yefimov — CC BY 3.0 · Anton Yefimov — CC BY 3.0 · Anton Yefimov — CC BY 3.0 · Martin de Lusenet from Heemskerk, Netherlands — CC BY 2.0 · Radosław Botev — CC BY 3.0 pl
First President's Park is a landscaped arboretum in south-west Almaty, where Al-Farabi Avenue meets Dulati Avenue at the foot of the Trans-Ili Alatau. Official figures put its area at 62 to 73 hectares, with more than 11,000 trees and shrubs. It opened in July 2010 and is named after Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan's first president. The site was once orchards of aport, the large apple of the Almaty foothills. Work on the park, first named Dendropark 21st Century, began in 2001, when Nazarbayev himself planted an oak. On 11 November 2011, marking 20 years of independence, a composition titled Kazakhstan was unveiled above the main fountain: a bronze figure of the first president before granite eagle's wings bearing symbols of Almaty and Astana. Behind the semicircular arcade of the main entrance lies a fountain of five tiered bowls around a crown ringed with zodiac medallions. Its jet once rose up to 30 m in evening music-and-light shows, but it has stood idle for years. Alleys climb to the Japanese garden (2015), with its pond, stream and pagoda, and to an artificial hill whose gazebo faces the mountains. A topiary garden (2016) has shrubs clipped into figures such as a green pianist. The park has been closed for reconstruction since September 2026 and is expected to reopen in spring 2027. It lies about 7 km south-west of the Central State Museum and 9 km from Panfilov Park in a straight line, and city buses stop beside it on Al-Farabi Avenue. Entry was free before the closure; allow an hour or two.
A semicircle of arches at the gate.
A pond, a stream and a pagoda.
A gazebo facing the mountains.
Al-Farabi Avenue at Dulati Avenue, Bostandyk district, south-west Almaty
No: on 8 September 2026 the city announced the closure of the whole park for a phased reconstruction, and in October the Bostandyk district head said the works should be finished in December but the reopening has been put back to spring 2027. Until then the city suggests the neighbouring Flow Park, reached by a footbridge.
Apple orchards, abandoned when the state farms were wound up after the Soviet collapse. In the mid-1990s the land was sold for an upmarket cottage estate, but the sale was annulled in 2000 and the plot went to a new park instead.