Gorno-Altaysk

Adventure holidays - Hotels

Gorno-Altaysk or Gorno-Altaisk is the capital of the Altai Republic, Russia. It is situated 3,641 km east of Moscow.
Population: 53,5 thousand people.

This only town of the Republic lies in a narrow Mayma Valley in the foothills of the Altay Mountains. Russian Orthodox missionaries arriving in the valley in 1830 stumbled upon the tiny settlement of Ulala, consisting at that time of nineteen indigenous and three Russian families. The next year Ulala was chosen as the site of the first Orthodox mission in the Altay and Russian settlers started migrating to the village.

When the Oyrot Autonomous Oblast was created in 1922, Ulala became its capital. In 1928 the village became a town and in 1932 its name was changed to Oyrot-Tura. However, in 1948 the authorities finally realized that the indigenous tribes of the area do not actually call themselves oyrots, the name of the autonomy was changed to Gorno-Altai Autonomous Oblast (i.e. the autonomous oblast of the Mountainous Altay), and with it the name of its capital.

Gorno-Altaysk has a scattering of industry, the Gorno-Altaysk Airport, a theatre, a university and a regional museum. It is 96 km from the nearest railway station at Biysk. One of the tourist attractions is a great souvenir shop. If you have to stay overnight somewhere, it's better to choose a tour base a few kilometers away along Chuysky Trakt on Katun river.
Many people consider starting their journey to Altay at Gorno-Altaysk, as it is the closest town to Altay Mountains.

The main street of the city is Kommunistichesky Prospekt, and in the middle the bus station is located (you can also buy railway tickets there and outside there's an airline ticket sales office). In the area around the bus station there are many shops (one of them is opened 24 hours) and a taxi stop. Just a few steps away from the bus station along the left side of Prospekt, on the same side as the bus stop, there's post office and international phone call service.

Souvenir Shop.
There's a very good souvenir shop in Gorno-Altaysklocated on the corner of Choros-Gurkina and Kirova street. They sell all kinds of traditional crafts: musical instruments, apparel, carpets. There's also a selection of traditional Altay music and photoalbums.

Getting to Gorno-Altaysk.
There's no train link with Gorno-Altaysk, so the only way to get there is either with a car or with a bus. Buses depart Novosibirsk, Barnaul, and Biysk daily, the trip from Novosibirsk takes about 9 hours, from Barnaul - 5 hours, from Biysk - about 2 hours.
The city is located 100 km from Biysk (along Chuysky Trakt) and 270 km from Barnaul.