Central Highlands (Kazakhstan) Voyage Tips and guide

Contents

The Central Highlands of Kazakhstan is a huge, sparsely populated region larger in area than Pakistan, consisting of the endless steppe of the Aktobe and Karagandy provinces, as well as the western half of East Kazakhstan Province (i.e., the Soviet-era Semipalatinsk Oblast).

• 50.28361157.2297221 Aktobe — big city on the steppe, now rapidly developing as a center for the oil industry in northwestern Kazakhstan
• Kandyagash- small town at rail junction, south of aktobe
• 47.9644780.434372 Ayagoz — a small town and major stop on the Turkestan-Siberian Railway
• 46.85753 Balkhash — small city located on lake Balkhash about halfway between Astana and Almaty by bus
• 49.873.1166674 Karaganda — a big Soviet coal mining city
• 50.41111180.22755 Semey — a Soviet-era atomic city (with the radiation levels to prove it), which earlier served as point of exile for one Fyodor Dostoevsky
• 50.06666772.9666676 Temirtau
• 47.78333367.77 Zhezkazgan — a medium sized mining city in western Karagandy Province, at what is nearly the exact center of the country

• 49.41666775.4166671 Karkaraly National Park

Semey Airport (PLX ^IATA)