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).

Cities

• 1 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
• Ayagoz — a small town and major stop on the Turkestan-Siberian Railway
• 2 Balkhash — small city located on lake Balkhash about halfway between Astana and Almaty by bus
• 3 Karaganda — a big Soviet coal mining city
• 4 Semey — a Soviet-era atomic city (with the radiation levels to prove it), which earlier served as point of exile for one Fyodor Dostoevsky
• 5 Temirtau
• Zhezkazgan — a medium sized mining city in western Karagandy Province, at what is nearly the exact center of the country

Other destinations

• 1 Karkaraly National Park

Get in

Semey Airport (PLX ^IATA)