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Medeu
A high-altitude skating rink in a mountain gorge, the starting point for walks into the hills.
No. 1 in the world
The world’s largest high-altitude skating rink
Medeu is the world’s largest open-air high-altitude rink with natural ice, frozen from the glacial water of the Malaya Almatinka River. In 2025 Kazakhstan added the Medeu complex to its UNESCO World Heritage tentative list.
- Altitude: 1,691 m above sea level
- Ice area: about 10,500 m²
- Opened in its current form in 1972
- From 1952 to 1988, 320 speed-skating world records were set here, more than at any other rink in the world
Sources: UNESCO
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How to get there from the apartment
- Apartment
- walk4 min
- Moskva metro
- metro14 min
- Abai metro
- walk8 min
- Bus stop Dostyk Ave / Abai Ave
Take bus no. 12 towards the mountains here.
- bus no. 1230 min
- Medeu, bus terminus
The cable car to Shymbulak starts here.
- walk3 min
- Medeu
Total travel time: 59 min
Times do not include traffic or waiting for transport.
Open the route in a navigation app