Historians associate it with the famous ambassador traveler Syuan-Jiang, believing that there was a suburb of Shymkent Isfidzhab. There is also speculation that Shymkent more than 1,300 years, based on the presence of burial mounds, located at the end of Al-Farabi streets. Distributed also felt that the city was formed in the XII century. These data are taken from the book by A. Dobrosmyslova. "Cities of the Syr Darya region" where he says: "The name of the city of Shymkent is derived from the word" denote "" turf and "ares" - Residents of Shymkent city ... include the time of its origin to the XII century, referring to the fact that there is the tomb of the saint Baba Dervish, a contemporary of Khoja Ahmed Yassaui. However, documentary evidence confirming this fact, did not survive. "

The first mention of the city we meet in "ZafarrName" - the book historian of Timur and Timurid era Sharafadina Iezdi, said that in the 1365-1366 gg. by modern reckoning Timur, going hiking on Mogolistan found their carts near Sairam, in the village of Shymkent. This is the first specific mention in written sources of Shymkent, which may in the absence of other data serve as the basis for the decision on the date of his birth.

Shymkent was founded at the crossroads of trade routes to European Russia, Central Asia, Western Siberia and China. Once on the Great Silk Road from Central Asia and China caravans who stopped to rest in a lush oasis at the intersection of the rivers Badam and Koshkarata. Here and formed a small settlement.

There are many interesting facts -poprobuem look back in the history of the city. In the 90 years of XVIII century, the southern territory of the Senior Juz, including the District of Shymkent, household captured Tashkent Yunus Bek-Khoja. Then, at the turn of the XIX century in Central Asia had the Kokand Khanate. Kokand hai Alim, subdued Tashkent, undertook a series of conquests in southern Kazakhstan, capturing several settlements, including Shymkent. In the province established the dominance of the feudal lords of Kokand. In the conquered lands it has been established and the most severe operating regime of terror.

In the 50 years of the governor of Kokand Khan in Southern Kazakhstan was Mirza Ahmed. When it was taken kokandtsy Kazakhs best pastures, irrigated fertile land, and those who could not pay the tax, children taken away and sold them into slavery. All this has caused in 1858 a broad uprising that engulfed almost the entire territory of the South Kazakhstan Shymkent to Merka.

Despite the defeat, the uprising accelerated the overthrow of the power of the rulers of Kokand and the completion of the accession of Kazakhstan to the Russian ...

"Who has not been in Shymkent, he lost a lot in life," -They elders. Today Shymkent - one of the largest industrial and cultural centers of Kazakhstan with good infrastructure. It is the administrative center of South Kazakhstan region.

The population of modern Shymkent ranks third after Almaty and Karaganda, has more than 600 thousand inhabitants, representatives from more than 95 nationalities.