Green Bazaar, Almaty

Green Bazaar opening hours

The Green Bazaar opens Tuesday to Sunday, roughly 8:00 to 19:00, and closes on Mondays for its weekly sanitary day. Treat these times as unofficial: the market has no website or published timetable, city guides list them, and some say 9:00 rather than 8:00. One travel site even lists it as open daily.

Each hall keeps its own clock. The main Winter Hall, the Central Pavilion, the textile market and the Kolos hardware hall run 8:00–19:00. The street book stalls open 10:00–18:00, and the Megatau mall next door opens daily 10:00–20:00.

Is the Green Bazaar worth visiting?

Yes — it is the single best place in Almaty to see, smell and taste Kazakh food in one go, and it costs nothing to walk in. The meat hall with horse sausage hanging in rows, the dairy counters with kumys and kurt, and the long pyramids of dried apricots make it more than a shopping stop.

It is not a souvenir bazaar like those in Bukhara or Istanbul: the upstairs floors sell clothes, toys and cheap household goods, which you can skip. Come for the food halls, give it an hour, and go in the morning when everything is fresh.

What to buy at the Green Bazaar

• Kazy and shuzhuk — horse-meat sausages, Kazakhstan’s signature food gift. Ask for vacuum packing if you are flying.
• Kurt — hard, salty dried cheese balls — and irimshik, a sweet dry curd. Both travel well.
• Kumys and shubat — fermented mare’s and camel’s milk. Try a small cup first; the taste is sharp.
• Talkan and zhent — sweets made from roasted grain, butter and honey.
• Dried fruit and nuts — apricots, raisins, almonds and walnuts, piled high on trays.
• Korean salads — spicy carrot, kimchi and hye, a legacy of Kazakhstan’s Korean community.
• Mountain honey and spices — herbs and spice mixes for plov and meat.
• Clothes, fabric and household goods — in the textile market and the Kolos hall next door.

A short history

This is Almaty’s oldest market. A trading square opened on the site in 1868, when the town was the Russian fort of Verny, and in 1875 the merchant Sadyk Rafikov paid for a stone arcade. The 1887 earthquake flattened most of it. In 1927 it became the Central Collective Farm Market, but locals called it the Green Bazaar for its mountains of vegetables and greens.

The present concrete hall with its galleries opened in 1975, planned for 800 stalls. A two-storey pavilion with parking went up on Makataev Street in 2017. Renovation of utilities, façades and halls is now under way in stages until 2028, and the owners say the market stays open throughout.

When to go and how long to stay

Come on a weekday morning, between 8:00 and noon. Produce is freshest, aisles are calm and vendors are happy to hand you a taste. By late afternoon the butchers and dairy sellers are packing up, and weekend middays get crowded in the main hall.

An hour covers a walk through the food halls. Allow 1.5–2 hours if you plan to taste, compare prices and buy gifts. For photos, climb to the upper gallery of the main hall — the view down over the dried-fruit rows is the classic shot. Ask stallholders before you photograph them up close.

Nearby — add to your day

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Almaty Arbat

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How to do it right

• Pair the bazaar with the Ascension Cathedral in Panfilov Park, one block south.
• Walk the whole aisle before buying — prices vary from one stall to the next.
• Ask for a taste: kurt, honey and dried fruit are offered almost everywhere.
• Flying home with kazy? Ask for vacuum packing.
• Hungry afterwards? Cafés and canteens line the streets around the market, and the Arbat has coffee shops.
• Head on to Kok-Tobe afterwards — a cable car runs up the hill.

Questions