Lake Balkhash(1) is a shallow lake, fresh in the southwest and salty in the northeast. To its northwest the land rises from high rocky shores to the Kazakh Upland. To its southeast are sand deserts interrupted by rivers flowing from the mountains, the Ili being the most important. That river flows from China, through the Kapchagayskoye Reservoir(2), and into the lake's southeast through several distributaries. East of the large lake, along the provincial boundary are two smaller lakes. Southeast of one of them is the famed low pass into northwest China: the Dzungarian(3) Gate.
West of the Gate are the Dzungarian Alatau Mountains, which rise to 4,464 meters along the Chinese border, and over 4,000 elsewhere in Almati Province.
South of the Ili's valley is part of the Tien Mountain(4) system. The highest peak, Khan Teligri, where Almaty Province intersects Kyrgyrzstan and China, is over 6,000 meters.
(1) Asia's fourth largest by surface area.
(2) Also transliterated from Russian as Kapcagajskoje, with a diacritical on the c. 'Reservoir' is vodokhranilishche or, with two diacriticals, vodochranilisce in transliterated Russian.
(3) Dzungarskije (or Dzungarskiye) Vorota in transliterated Russian.
(4) Tien translates from Chinese as Heavenly. Mountains transliterates from Chinese as 'shan'.