The world`s famous skating rink Medeu was built in 1972 in a picturesque gorge located 15km.from Almaty.Its 10,500sq. meter uce area is the best place for outdoor world competitions in speed skating.Russian hockey figure skating and other sports events.Special refrigerating equipment provides the ice-cover of the skating field 8 months a year and ice tracks are kept ready for skating all year round.Over 120 world records have been set there by the world`s strongest skaters.It is open for public skating Desember through March.Admission: about US $4. Skates rent is available on the first floor outside of the rink.A hotel (the Premier Medeu) is located near the rink.At 1691-meters above sea level,nature lover will find beautiful mountain scenes surrounding the skating rink.The Medeu Gorge is bordered by mountain ridges:Kim asars on the west,Kabyrgatau on its east,fnd Kunbel on the south-east.A road runs through Medeu gorge towards the Mynzhylky gorge.The gorge has 21,000 hectare of forests with birches,Tien Shan spruces,and mountain ashes.One of the attractions is a dike built in the valley of the Kishkene Almaty river to protect the city from landslides.The dike`s collector has an impressive capacity of 6,000,000 cubic meters of water.It is this dike that has kept back a disastrous landscape in 1973
