Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country on earth and most of it is grass - the great Eurasian steppe running to every horizon, the sky doing things that skies in smaller countries do not have room for. Almaty sits beneath the Tian Shan mountains with a sophistication that surprises people who were not paying attention; Nur-Sultan was built from scratch on the steppe as a capital city and has the slightly unreal quality of all cities that were willed into existence by decree. In between, the Charyn Canyon turns red at dusk and the Aral Sea sits drying in the west, one of the great environmental catastrophes rendered, somehow, visitable.

Our guide is being written from the ground up, with the time this place deserves.

We are still gathering the notes that make a guide worth keeping: Almaty's bazaars, steppe horseback routes, Charyn Canyon timings and the kumiss guesthouses where hospitality arrives in a bowl before the conversation does.