The first Russian settlement in the area was Fort Ili[3] or Iliysk (Russian: Илийск), named for the area's major river. During the construction of the Kapshagay (Russian: Капшагай), Kapchagay (Капчагай), or Qapşağai (Kazakh: Қапшағай, lit. 'Narrow Gorge') dam during the 1960s, the town was moved and renamed Novoiliysk (Russian: Новоилийск, lit. 'New Iliysk'). Following the dam's completion, Novoiliysk was renamed Kapshagay in its honor on 9 July 1970.
Geography
Fort Ili was established by the Russians at the head of navigation on the Ili River for their river boats travelling upstream from Lake Balkhash. When the town of Iliysk that grew up around the fort was set to be flooded, the settlement was relocated to the planned western shore of the Kapshagay Reservoir. The present town is connected by railway with Almaty 76 km (47 mi) to its south.[4]
Many of Kapchagay's Russian inhabitants fled the city during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, but its population saw a resurgence in the 2000s and has since returned to predissolution numbers.[6] The city was renamed Qonayev and made the capital of Almaty Region[7] on 17 March 2022 as part of Kazakh president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's reforms. The former Almaty capital Taldykorgan was made the capital of the newly established Zhetysu Region.[8]
Lake Kapchagay is now a popular weekend destination for tourists from Almaty.[9]
^ ab"Население Республики Казахстан" [Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan] (in Russian). Департамент социальной и демографической статистики. Retrieved 8 December 2013.