Kazakhstan is the multinational country, where representatives of many religions live in peace and harmony with each other, over many years. The majority of cathedrals were built in XX century, but on the territory of country you can find the remnants of cathedrals and monasteries on antiquity. In Almaty there are more than 70 religious buildings and much more houses of prayer of different confessions.
As it is traditional for the Central Asia, the dominant religion in Kazakhstan is the Islam, 9 million people profess it, and totally there are more than 2300 mosques all over the country. The Southern Capital numbers 32 mosques, among which the Central Mosque is distinguished, designed for 7 thousand of parishioners. Besides that, several Islamic educational institutions and publishing houses of religious literature work in Almaty.
The second largest religion in the city is the Christianity, and represented by very different trends, the main of which are: Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Protestantism, Baptism, and Presbyterianism. The largest Church is the Ascension Cathedral, which was built in the beginning of XX century entirely of wood.
Also two synagogues are located in Almaty. The history of Judaism in Almaty begins practically from the foundation of the city: first Jews appeared here in 1870, and already in 1884 the first synagogue of Kazakhstan was built.
However, the oldest religion on the territory of Kazakhstan, which exists even today, is the Buddhism. Some time missioners from India came here, but today the base of Buddhists here consists of Korean people.
