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 '854, 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 .