Dear visitors of our blog about Kazakhstan! We wish you Happy New Year and good luck in all your endeavors in 2013!

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Ust-Kamenogorsk (Oskemen) is a city located in East Kazakhstan region of the country. The city lies in the foothills of Rudny Altay mountains at the junction of Ulba and Irtysh rivers.

The city was founded as a Russian fort in 1720. Later Ust-Kamenogorsk became a center of trade with Mongolia and China and the gateway to the mineral wealth of the Rudny Altay mountains. Today it is Kazakhstan major center of nonferrous metallurgy with important associated research institutes and laboratories.

Tags: Ust-Kamenogorsk city

Kazakhstan is a vast country with a wide variety of landscapes, natural, historical, and cultural monuments. Unfortunately a great tourist potential of the country is still not fully used.

Foreign tourists are reluctant to going to Kazakhstan; even local people often prefer to travel to other countries and don’t visit Kazakhstan sights. This is largely due to poor infrastructure, complicated visa procedures, lack of information about unique reserved places, monuments of history and culture.

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Tags: Kazakhstan tourism · landscapes

In a picturesque place on the shore of Markakol Lake at the east of Kazakhstan (Kurchum district of East Kazakhstan region) there is a small village Urunhayka.

It is not so easy to get to this distant village. The only way is to drive on the mountain Old-Austrian road built by prisoners a hundred years ago. This is one of the most interesting and picturesque parts of Kazakhstan Altai. Photos by voxpopuli.kz

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Tags: East Kazakhstan oblast