Museum dedicated to Kazakhstan’s greatest explorer Shokan Ualikhanov
Deep in the Almaty region countryside, there’s a museum dedicated to Kazakhstan’s greatest explorer, Shokan Ualikhanov.
140.The monument to Shokan Valihanov
Kazakh writer S.Mykhanov compared Shokan Valihanov’s (1835-1865) life with a meteor flashes. His life was short and bright. He run geographic and ethnographic researches in Central Asia, educational and literary activities. He was friends with P.P. Semenov - Tien-Shan, G.A. Kolpakovskii, and other prominent people of the nineteenth century. F. Dostoevskii wrote to Shokan Valihanov: “You are the first man who is educated both as a European and Kazakh person. Only you could show to the whole world what it means”. Nowadays S. Valihanov’s works were translated into 30 languages. They created a huge interest among scientists. The S. Valihanov’s memorial is located on Shevchenko st.,28. It is the center of a symmetrical composition of the area in front of the Kazakh National Academy of Sciences. It was created by sculptor H.Nauryzbaeva and architect Sh.E.Valihanov. This sculpture shows detailed portrait of the scientist. His figure in uniform was depicted in a natural posture. He was thinking about something and stopped only for a moment. Symmetrically to the monument there is polished black gabbro stone, dividing the space on the approach to the monument. The composition is completed with the fountain, and two rows of fir trees.