Karaganda & Central Kazakhstan

The central steppe, the Saryarka or "yellow ridge" of Kazakh poetry, holds some of the richest Bronze Age remains in the country, with settlements and copper workings around Zhezkazgan that were exploited long before the modern mines. In the Middle Ages it was prime summer pasture for the nomads, and the Ulytau hills became a place of legend. Jochi, the eldest son of Genghis Khan, is traditionally held to be buried in a mausoleum near Zhezkazgan, and Kazakh tradition tells of khans and clan leaders meeting at Ulytau to decide matters of war and peace.

Russian control arrived in the 19th century with outposts such as Karkaraly. Industrial history began when coal was found at Karaganda in the 1830s and copper at Zhezkazgan, where the geologist Kanysh Satpayev proved the scale of the deposits in the 1920s and 1930s. The Soviet state developed both with forced labour. Karlag, the Karaganda Corrective Labour Camp, run from 1930 to 1959 and headquartered at Dolinka, spread across a huge area of the steppe and held prisoners from every part of the Soviet Union, while deported Germans, Poles, Chechens and others were sent to the mining settlements.

After Stalin's death, prisoners at the Kengir camp in Zhezkazgan staged a major uprising in 1954, crushed by tanks after about forty days. Karaganda grew into one of the largest cities of Soviet Kazakhstan, Temirtau's steel mill rose nearby, and the town of Balkhash was built around a copper smelter. In 2022 the western districts around Zhezkazgan were separated from Karaganda Region to form the new Ulytau Region.

Karaganda is a city of many origins. Descendants of exiles and prisoners — Germans, Poles, Koreans, Chechens, Ingush, Ukrainians — live alongside Kazakhs and Russians, and although many Germans left for Germany after 1991, Lutheran and Catholic churches still stand in the city. Russian is the usual street language, and the city's identity is bound up with mining, with miners' monuments, a miners' day holiday and a strong sense of shared hardship.

Memory of the camps is part of local culture. The Karlag museum at Dolinka and the memorial at Spassk, site of a camp for foreign prisoners of war, draw descendants from across the former Soviet Union and beyond, and national days of remembrance for the victims of repression are marked here.

Ulytau plays a different role, as a symbol of Kazakh statehood. Its mausoleums and legends are taught in schools, officials and pilgrims visit, and the hills are woven into stories of heroes and khans. The steppe districts keep herding traditions, horse games and kymyz-making, and the akyns of the Saryarka, poets who improvise verse, are celebrated in the region's music.

Karaganda, with about half a million people, is the region's main city, spread along wide Soviet avenues between the old town and the newer districts to the south. Temirtau, a steel town, and the mining towns of Shakhtinsk, Saran and Abai surround it. Balkhash on the lake, and Zhezkazgan and Satpayev in the west, are smaller company cities; Zhezkazgan became the capital of Ulytau Region in 2022.

Mining still defines the economy: coal around Karaganda, steel at Temirtau, copper at Zhezkazgan and Balkhash. Accidents at the coal mines, including a deadly fire in 2023, have made mine safety a national issue, and many younger people leave for Astana and Almaty. Karaganda also has universities and medical schools that draw students from across the country.

Life follows the long winter: heated flats and district heating, crowded buses, and weekends at the dacha or at Karkaraly and the Balkhash beaches in summer. Environmental problems from smelting and old mines are a constant local concern.

The region's cooking reflects its mixed population. Kazakh beshbarmak, kazy and kuyrdak sit on the same tables as Russian pelmeni and pickles, German baked goods and Korean salads, and Karaganda's canteens serve all of them. Horse and mutton are the meats of the steppe districts, and in autumn families slaughter animals for winter in the tradition of sogym.

Lake Balkhash supplies fish: zander, carp and bream, smoked and sold at roadside stalls along the highways near the lake, and fried or baked in the town's cafés. In Ulytau and the western steppe, kymyz from summer pastures is drunk fresh, and kurt, dried curd balls, and irimshik, a dried cheese, are made by herding families.

Tea with milk accompanies every meal, often with baursak and jam. Karaganda's bakeries and markets sell local bread, and its miners' tradition favours hearty soups and stews through the winter.

Karaganda and the Karlag memorial are the usual starting points. In the city, the miners' monument, the regional museum and the Catholic cathedral can be seen in a day, and the Karlag museum stands at Dolinka, the former camp headquarters south-west of the city; the Spassk memorial is also within reach. East of Karaganda, Karkaraly National Park has pine-covered granite hills, clear lakes and walking trails.

To the south, Lake Balkhash's northern shore runs past the copper town of Balkhash, with summer beaches and fishing, and the weathered granite massif of Bektau-Ata stands in the desert nearby. The lake is unusual for being fresh in its western part and salty in the east.

In the west, Zhezkazgan has a local history museum and a copper company museum. Beyond it the Ulytau hills rise from the steppe, and the Ulytau National Park protects their valleys and granite ridges. The mausoleums of Jochi Khan and Alasha Khan and the old stone tomb of Dombauyl lie on the plain near Zhezkazgan, and Ulytau village serves as a base for the ancient burial mounds and hilltop viewpoints of the range.