bishkek kyrgyzstan - june 2026

Bishkek, formerly known as Pishpek (until 1926), and then Frunze (1926–1991), is the capital and largest urban city of Kyrgyzstan. The city is also the capital of the Chüy Region. It is situated near the border with Kazakhstan and has a population of around 1,200,000 people as of 2024.

Bishkek is situated at an altitude of about 800 metres (2,600 ft), just off the northern fringe of the Kyrgyz Ala-Too Range, an extension of the Tian Shan mountain range. Bishkek is a very large city of wide boulevards and marble-faced public buildings combined with numerous Soviet-style apartment blocks surrounding interior courtyards. There are also thousands of smaller, privately built houses, mostly outside the city centre. Streets follow a grid pattern, with most flanked on both sides by narrow irrigation channels, which provide water to trees which provide shade during the hot summers. (wikipedia)

I visited the city during three weeks, so I had time to photograph daily life in the streets, parks and the big squares. Also to visit the National Opera and Ballet theatre two times and to have some photoshoots with locals. In this section an overview of my selection of the pictures I made. There are two seperate posts with more picures of the opera performance "luce del soprano" and the photoshoots with Medina and Milana.