, 1948)
Orientation Although Bishkek itself is relatively young, its surrounding area has some sites of interest dating to prehistoric times. There are also sites from the
Greco-Buddhist period, the period of
Nestorian influence, the era of the Central Asian
khanates, and the Soviet period. The central part of the city is laid out on a rectangular grid plan. The city's main street is the east-west Chüy Avenue (
Chüy Prospekti), named after the region's
main river. In the Soviet era, it was called
Lenin Avenue. Along or near it are many important government buildings and universities. These include the
Academy of Sciences compound. The westernmost section of the avenue is known as
Deng Xiaoping Avenue. Sovietskaya Street forms the primary north–south corridor through Bishkek. Officially, Sovietskaya Street has been renamed
Yusup Abdrakhmanov Street, but it is still commonly referred to by its original name. Its northern and southern sections are called, respectively, Yelebesov and Baityk Batyr Streets. Several major shopping centres are located along with it, and in the north, it provides access to
Dordoy Bazaar. Erkindik ("Freedom") Boulevard runs from north to south, from the main railroad station (Bishkek II) south of Chüy Avenue to the museum quarter and sculpture park just north of Chüy Avenue, and further north toward the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the past, it was called Dzerzhinsky Boulevard, named after a Communist revolutionary,
Felix Dzerzhinsky, and its northern continuation is still called Dzerzhinsky Street. An important east–west street is Jibek Jolu ('
Silk Road'). It runs parallel to Chüy Avenue about north of it and is part of the main east–west road of
Chüy Region. Both the eastern and western bus terminals are located along Jibek Jolu. There is a Roman Catholic church located at ul. Vasiljeva 197 (near Rynok Bayat). It is the only Catholic cathedral in Kyrgyzstan. A stadium named in honour of Dolon Omurzakov is located near the centre of Bishkek. This is the largest stadium in the Kyrgyz Republic.
City centre •
Kyrgyz State Historical Museum, located in
Ala-Too Square, the main city square. • State Museum of Applied Arts, containing examples of traditional Kyrgyz
handicrafts. • Frunze House Museum. • Statue of
Ivan Panfilov in the park near the
White House. • An
equestrian statue of
Mikhail Frunze stands in a large park (Boulevard Erkindik) across from the train station. • The train station was built in 1946 by German
prisoners of war and has survived since then without further renovation or repairs; most of those who built it perished and were buried in unmarked pits near the station. • The main government building, the White House, is a large seven-story marble building and the former headquarters of the Communist Party of the
Kirghiz SSR. • At
Ala-Too Square there is an independence monument where the changing of the guards may be watched. •
Osh Bazaar, west of the city centre, is a large, picturesque produce market. •
Kyrgyz National Philharmonic, concert hall.
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 away, provides a spectacular backdrop to the city; the
Ala Archa National Park is only a 30- to 45-minute drive away.
Distances Bishkek is about 300 km away directly from the country's second largest city
Osh. However, its nearest large city is
Almaty of Kazakhstan, which is 190 km to the east. Furthermore, it is 470 km from
Tashkent (Uzbekistan), 680 km from
Dushanbe (Tajikistan), and about 1,000 km each from
Astana (Kazakhstan),
Ürümqi (China),
Islamabad (Pakistan), and
Kabul (Afghanistan).
Climate Bishkek has a Mediterranean-influenced
humid continental climate (
Köppen climate classification Dsa), as the average mean temperature in the winter is below . Average
precipitation is around per year. Average daily high temperatures range from in January to about during July. The summer months are dominated by dry periods, punctuated by the occasional
thunderstorm, which produces strong gusty winds and rare
dust storms. The mountains to the south provide a natural boundary and protection from damaging weather, as does the smaller mountain chain that runs north-west to south-east. In the winter months, sparse
snow storms and frequent heavy
fog are the dominating features. There are sometimes temperature inversions, during which the fog can last for days at a time. ==Demographics==