Located out on country's western desert steppes near the village of Toretam, the world's first space launch complex  (built in the late 1950s) and still its largest, Baikonur is under contract to Russia as the main facility for its space program. If you're really a motivated space buff, you can take a (usually rather pricy) overnight-to-three-day tour from Almaty, and offerings for tourists include a visitor center, several space-themed museums,  and zero-gravity and jet-trainer flights. If you're lucky, you might even catch a launch (the next one is this May 24).



Ninaras