Tours to Central Kazakhstan parks.

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime” 

Mark Twain.

Short description of study tour from Almaty to Karaganda and Astana:

Almaty - Karaganda - Karkaraly National Park - Karaganda - Astana.

Distance of route: 875 km.
Hiking route: 12 km.
Season: May - September
Duration: 8 days, 7 nights.
Best time for tour: July - August.

Detailed program on Karkaraly park and Astana:

Tours to Karaganda region nature parks.

Day 1. Almaty.
Arrival in the city of Almaty. Meeting at the airport, transfer to hotel, accommodation. Relaxation. Breakfast. City tour, visit: 28 Panfilov’s park, Cathedral, Musical Instrument Museum, National Museum of Kazakhstan, Medeo valley, Republic Square (4 hours). Lunch at a local restaurant, after lunch, rise by the cable way to Mount Kok-Tyube, walk around Kok-Tobe, a bird's-eye view of Almaty. Return to the hotel, dinner, overnight.
Day 2. Almaty - Karaganda - Dolinka village (74 km).
Breakfast. Transfer to the airport, departure to Karaganda, arrival. Meeting at the airport, transfer to hotel, accommodation. City tour, a visit to the Karaganda Regional Museum of History and Local Lore. The museum is the largest museum in the area.
The museum was opened in November 1932. In 1936, the museum’s funds were replenished with a collection of archaeological finds sent by an expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Visit to the regional mosque - a cultural and scientific center located in the ethnographic park named after the 10th anniversary of Independence.
Visit to the Pitmen’s Palace of Culture located on Bukhar-Zhyrau Avenue. The construction of this magnificent palace began in 1940. On the pediment of this building there are six sculptures: a miner, a builder, a shepherd with a lamb, a collective farmer with a sheaf of wheat, Kazakh singer with a dombra and a warrior.
Here is a visit to the monument Miner's Glory. A visit to the Ecological Museum, this is a one-of-a-kind museum; its opening was in 1995. A visit to the cathedral in the name of the Vvedeniya into the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the construction of this temple was started in 1991, ended in 2000.
A visit to the Museum of Fine Arts, in the museum you can see the painting of Karaganda, arts and crafts.
Transfer: Karagandy - Aktas village - Dubovka village - Dolinka village (37 km). Arrival in the village of Dolinka, a visit to the museum in memory of victims of political repression. Return to Karaganda. Transfer to the hotel, dinner, overnight.
Day 3. Karaganda - Karkaralinsk (242 km).
Breakfast. Transfer: Karaganda - Kokpekty village - Botakara village - Koktas village - Karkaralinsk village. Arrival in Karkaralinsk, hotel accommodation, lunch. Walking in the Karkaraly natural park.
After lunch, visit the nature museum in the Tasbulak valley (3 km), in the environs of the museum live and breed bisons, which were delivered in the early 2000s from the Belovezhskaya Pushcha of Belarus. In 2003, in early June, one of the female bison brought the first offspring - it turned out to be a small bison named Karkusha. More than 30 red deer live here. Near the observation deck, more than 30 dozen groundhogs graze on the grass.
Transfer: Museum of Nature - Lake Pashennoe (14 km). Walk around Lake Pashennoye. In the vicinity of the lake, 3 kilometers away, there is the highest mountain of the Karkaraly mountains - the peak of Zhirensakal (Komsomolsky) 1403 meters above sea level. Return to the hotel, dinner, overnight.
Day 4. Karkaralinsk - Komissarov valley - Kent valley (104 km).
Breakfast. Today we have a trip to the lake and to the Komissarov valley. Then a trip to the mountains of Kent, one of the picturesque and historical places of the Karkaraly mountains.
Transfer: Karkaralinsk - Lake Bolshoe - Lake and the Komissarov valley (20 km). In the Karkaraly mountains, in the environs of a small village, there is a lake and the Komissarov valley. The lake against the backdrop of the Karkaraly mountains and Komsomol peak with a height of 1403 meters above sea level looks very picturesque.
The lake is 410 meters long and 266 meters wide. The western part of the lake is swampy, a small stream flows from it. In the northern, northeastern and northwestern parts of the lake there are numerous holiday homes. On the eastern shore of the lake there is a forester’s house - a building from 1910 - 1913. Walk around.
Further transfer: Komissarov valley - Borlybulak village - Karagaly village - Kent village - Kent mountains (43 km). In the area of ​​the Kent Mountains are the ruins of the mysterious Kyzyl Kenish Palace. According to one of the assumptions, there are the ruins of a monastery where Buddhist monks lived in the XVIth century.
Visiting the Kyzylkenish palace, archaeological site, walking in the vicinity. Lunch is on the way. Return to Karkaralinsk (41 km), dinner, overnight.
Day 5. Karkaralinsk - Lake Bassein - Lake Shaitankol (15 km).
Breakfast. Transfer: Karkaralinsk - rest house Sosnovyi Bor (6 km). Hiking from the holiday home to Lake Bassein (2 km). Lake Bassein is the bottom of the most beautiful places of the Karkaraly mountains. The lake is 61 meters long and 20 meters wide.
The path to the lake lies along a simple path and it is only in front of the lake that you need to walk along gentle cliffs. An amazing creation of nature, located high in the mountains and is a natural granite pool of surprisingly regular rectangular shape filled with water and picturesquely located in a necklace of rocks among the forests. From the height of the lake, a panorama of the surrounding mountains opens. Return to Karkaralinsk, lunch.
After lunch transfer: Karkaralinsk - Berloga rest house (3 km). Hiking from the holiday home to the Shaitankol Lake (4 km). Shaitankol Lake is an amazing creation of nature, small in size, only 60 meters in length and 40 meters in width. Return to Karkaralinsk, dinner, overnight.
Day 6. Karkaralinsk - Astana (440 km).
Breakfast. Transfer: Karkaralinsk - Karaganda (225 km). Arrival in Karaganda, lunch in a cafe. After lunch, transfer to Astana (214 km.). Arrival in Astana, transfer to hotel, accommodation, dinner overnight
Day 7. Astana.
Breakfast. Tour of Astana. Visit to the Hazret Sultan Mosque. The mosque is located on the right bank of the Ishim River, near the American Embassy, ​​next to the Kazak Eli monument and is adjacent to the Palace of Peace and Accord. The main mosque of Astana is built of white marble.
The second largest mosque in Central Asia after the mosque in Turkmenistan "Spirituality of Turkmenbashi". The construction of the Hazret Sultan Cathedral Mosque began in Astana in June 2009. The building was built in the classical Islamic style with the use of traditional Kazakh ornaments. 5000 worshipers can fit in the Hazret Sultan Mosque, up to 10,000 people on holidays.
The Hazret Sultan Mosque has the largest dome in Kazakhstan, 51 meters high and 28.1 meters in diameter at the base of the dome. The mosque also has eight small domes with diameters of 10.45 and 7.6 meters, and peaks - 33.46 and 25, 25 meters. In the corners of the mosque there are 4 minarets 77 meters high.
After the excursion to the mosque, transfer to the shopping and entertainment complex - "Khan Shatyr". From here our tour on the Nurly Zhol boulevard will begin. So, behind us is the Khan-Shatyr complex designed by the British architect Norman Foster. Lunch.
We go further through the Gashyktar park, through the arch of a popular administrative building with gilded glass to Nurly Zhol Boulevard, the Water-Green Boulevard residential complex, the buildings of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (nickname Lighter), business center “Emerald Quarter”, “Northern Lights” residential complex, “Astana-Baiterek” monument.
The height of Astana-Baiterek is 105 meters, the diameter of the ball is 22 meters. Inside the ball are a bar and a panoramic room. Far away is the House of Ministries, the building of the Government of Kazakhstan, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The boulevard ends with the residence of the president of Ak Orda. End of excursion, free time. Dinner, overnight.
Day 8. Astana.
Transfer to the airport, departure from Astana, end of the program.

Note:
Author program of Alexander Petrov. Copying and introduction -  from the sanction of the author  petrovsra@mail.ru

Photos by
Alexander Petrov