1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Vyernyi

VYERNYI (formerly Almaty), a town and fort of Asiatic Russia, capital of the province of Semiryechensk, 50 m. N. of Lake Issyk-kul, at the northern foot of the Trans-Ili Ala-tau Mountains, at an altitude of 2440 ft. Pop. 24,798. Founded in 1854, it is well-built, provided with boulevards and surrounded by luxuriant gardens. It has a cathedral, being an archiepiscopal see of the Orthodox Greek Church, a school of gardening and sericulture, a public library, and a few distilleries, tanneries and oil works. Situated at the intersection of two roads—from Kulja to Tashkent, and from Semipalatinsk to Kashgar—Vyernyi carries on an active trade in wheat, rice, corn, tea, oil and tobacco. It was the centre of a remarkable earthquake on the 9th of June 1887.