The City of Almaty is located in the northern foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau Mountains, the most northern range of the Northern Tien Shan. Local landscapes include woodlands, moraine lakes, waterfalls, subalpine and alpine meadows, scenic rock cliffs, snowfields, glaciers and numerous amazingly beautiful mountain peaks over 4,000 meters tall and permanently covered by snow and ice.

The highest point of the Trans-Ili Alatau Mountains is the Talgar Peak (4,973 meters).

The Ile-Alatau National Park was founded in 1996 and covers an area of almost 200 thousand hectares.  The length of the park from west to east is 120 km, and up to 35 km from north to south; it borders the Almaty Nature Reserve established in 1964 and currently covering almost 72 thousand hectares.  The Ile-Alatau National Park plays an important role in the conservation of natural ecosystems of the Northern Tien Shan.  Conifer forests of the relict Tien Shan Spruce, aspen and apple groves, subalpine and alpine meadows interchange with spectacular rock arrays and mountain tops.