In 60 seconds
At the middle Volga's bend where the Kazanka joins the great river, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan brings together Volga Tatar and Russian heritage. Inside the white-walled UNESCO-listed Kazan Kremlin, the turquoise minarets of Kul Sharif Mosque stand steps from the leaning brick Soyembika Tower and the 1562 Annunciation Cathedral, while the wooden Tatar houses and brightly painted mosques of Staro-Tatarskaya Sloboda line Lake Nizhny Kaban.
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Official travel advisories currently warn against all travel to Russia.
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The things that would make the trip incomplete without them.
UNESCO World Heritage citadel overlooking the Kazanka and Volga
Brings together sixteenth-century Pskov-school masonry, the seven-tiered Soyembika Tower and the marble-and-turquoise Kul Sharif Mosque.
Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Tatar merchant quarter along Lake Kaban
Centred on the 1766 white-stone Marjani Mosque, the Apanaevskaya Mosque and the Kamal Theatre promenade.
Sixteenth-century island fortress and UNESCO World Heritage Assumption Cathedral
Preserves a complete 1560s fresco cycle including a rare fresco of Saint Christopher.
Beyond the obvious
Less obvious, rarely queued for, and usually the part people remember.
Housed in the 1895 Gostiny Dvor opposite the Kremlin
Covers Volga Bulgaria, the Khanate of Kazan and Tatar decorative arts.
Pedestrian thoroughfare dominated by an 1899 seventy-four-metre patterned red-brick belfry
Climb the bell tower for a central rooftop view of Kazan.
