Shymkent is a city in Kazakhstan, located near the border with Uzbekistan. It is one of the three cities in Kazakhstan with the status of a city of republican significance. As of June 1, 2018, it is the third-largest city in Kazakhstan by population, after Almaty and Astana, with an estimated population of 1,002,291 people. Shymkent is a regional cultural center. The city is situated 690 kilometers (430 miles) west of Almaty and 1,483 kilometers (920 miles) south of Astana. It is also located 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
The name Chimkent is derived from two Sogdian words: chim (meaning "grass") and kent (or kand) (meaning "city")—similar to the name of the nearby city of Tashkent. Therefore, it literally means "city in the grass." After Kazakhstan gained independence in 1993, the spelling was changed to Shymkent as part of a government initiative to assign Kazakh names to cities. The official spelling of Shymkent, as enshrined in the Constitution of Kazakhstan, conflicts with the original Uzbek orthography rules, where the letter "ы" (y) never follows "ш" (sh). In the original Uzbek spelling, there is no letter "ы," and what is written as "sh" in Kazakh is written as "ch" in Uzbek. As a result, the new name Shymkent (Shymkent) is used only in Kazakhstan, while other countries continue to use the original spelling, Chimkent (Chimkent).
Shymkent (formerly Chimkent) was founded in the 12th century as a caravanserai to protect the nearby trade city of Sairam, located 10 km to the east, along the
