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).

Regions

Cities

  • Aktobe — big city on the step, now rapidly developing as a center for the oil industry in northwestern Kazakhstan
  • Ayagoz — a small town and major stop on the Turkestan-Siberian Railway
  • Karaganda — a big Soviet coal mining city
  • Semey — a Soviet-era atomic city (with the radiation levels to prove it), which earlier served as point of exile for one Fyodor Dostoevsky
  • Zhezkazgan — a medium sized mining city in western Karagandy Province, at what is nearly the exact center of the country
  • Other destinations

  • Karkaralinsk National Park
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