Bishkek Audio Tours

Bishkek was a Kokand fortress called Pishpek until Russian forces took it in 1860, then a settlement, then a Soviet capital renamed Frunze after a Bolshevik general born here. The name Bishkek, returned in 1991, is thought to mean the wooden churn used to make kumiss, fermented mare's milk, which tells you something about the cultural priorities of the people who named their capital after a kitchen implement. The city sits at around 800 metres elevation in the Chuy Valley, and on clear days the Tian Shan mountains to the south form a wall of peaks that is hard to look away from.

The Soviet period left Bishkek with wide boulevards, oversized public squares, and more trees than almost any Central Asian capital, which gives it an unexpectedly green and leafy character in summer.

Ala-Too Square, the main civic plaza, centres on a changing-of-the-guard ceremony and the Kyrgyz State Historical Museum. The Osh Bazaar nearby is one of the most authentic and least touristy markets in Central Asia, a working market for a working city where locals buy dried fruit, animal pelts, and automotive parts in the same building.