Though Karaganda is the second-largest city (pop. 560,000) in Kazakhstan, give it a pass if time is short. Relatively new, it is primarily a coal-mining center.
Attractions are limited to the obligatory war memorials and miners' palaces, though there also are a few mosques and churches to see. Karaganda province is where Russian author Alexander Soltzhenitsyn spent eight years (1945-53) in a hard labor camp that provided the framework for the book
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.
500 mi/800 km northwest of Almaty.