Qaraghandy

Qa·ra·ghan·dy or Ka·ra·gan·da (kăr'ə-gən-däʹ, kə-rə-)

A city of central Kazakhstan southeast of Astana. Founded in 1857 as a copper-mining settlement, it is now the center of a coal industry. Population: 596,000.

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or Karaganda

City (pop., 1999.: 436,900), central Kazakhstan.

The first settlement appeared in 1856, and small-scale coal mining began the next year. Mining expanded rapidly in the early 1930s, and the town was made a city in 1934. Kazakhstan's second largest city, it consists of the old town, which grew up haphazardly around more than 20 mining settlements, and the new town, the region's cultural and administrative centre, which includes a university and medical and polytechnic institutes.

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