AVALON - Cycling Karaganda - Bicycle tours in Karaganda

OLD TOWN AND PRISHAKHTINSK (37 KM, 9 HOURS)

On this tour you will visit Old town – the place that for a long time was considered the center of Karaganda city. In 1930’s Karaganda consisted of about 25 miners’ settlements and its central part was located in the area where nowadays one may find the ruins of Old Kazakh Drama Theatre and Parkhomenko factory. The latter is located on the spot where one of the first Karaganda mines, Gerbert mine, was situated. The route goes through a number of industrial sights – mines (by the way, you may visit Mining museum at Kostenko mine), a coal-preparation plant and Miners memorial. Since most of the buildings in this area had been pulled down due to ground subsidence (mining took place right under the living quarters), Old Kazakh Drama Theatre as well as Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel, located on the eastern edge of the Finnish settlement, are some of the few monumental buildings of the old Karaganda preserved up to date. After visiting the cathedral, you will ride through Prishakhtinsk and get to its northern edge. There you will find “Berkut” complex along with a good viewing point, from where you will have a good panorama of Karaganda city, including its industrial part. This particular viewing point is one of the most popular meeting points of the Karaganda cyclers. It is a good idea to make a small picnic here and later ride back to the city center following Astana-Karaganda highway.

Itinerary: Cascade of fountains – Bukhar-Zhyrau avenue – Mira Boulevard – Gogol street – area of the Mine of the 50th anniversary of October revolution – area of Kostenko mine – Old Kazakh Drama Theatre – area of Severnaya mine – Area of the central coal-preparation plant – Cathedral of St. Michael the Archaengel – Zelinskiy street – Lunacharskiy street – Berkut – 15th main – Bukhar-Zhyrau avenue – Cascade of fountains.