Karagandy
Once in the steppe lived rich man. The man was greedy and nasty. He had a large flock of goats and sheep, all white and only one sheep among them was black. Rich man considered it sacred and thought that she was protecting his entire flock, and therefore he guarded it more than others did. Once, when the flock returned home, Rich man noticed that the black sheep did not come along with everyone. Angry, he began to ask the shepherds where his black sheep went. The shepherds answered that it was time for the lamb to calve, and therefore it fell behind the herd and got lost. Then angry, man told the shepherds to go in search of a black sheep and not to return without it. There is nothing to do, dusk fell on the pasture, and the poor shepherds set off to look for a black sheep in complete darkness. They walked around the neighborhood for a long time, searched a sheep, but could not find it. Dim moonlight barely illuminated the steppe, overgrown with yellow acacia, which in Kazakh is called "Karagany". One of the shepherds said: “Where you look and go, everywhere we were already, there is only Karaganda around!” This meant that the same species was everywhere, yellow acacia was growing and nothing else.
From now on, according to the legend, the region received the name Karaganda precisely because of the low-growing shrub “Karagany” (yellow acacia) abundantly growing in the steppe. At the same time, another folk story tells us that the name and development of Karaganda is directly related to the discovery of huge deposits of coal in this territory, which was discovered by the young shepherd Appak Bayzhanov. According to one of the versions, Kazakhs associate black coal with dried blood, which in Kazakh sounds like “kara can dy”. And here it is the legend.
Once, on a beautiful spring day in 1833, a young shepherd named Appak Baizhanov drove a flock of rich man through Karaganda settlement near the River Nur. The young man quickly ran back and forth, pushing backward sheep, playfully danced and entertained with his animals. He poked them with a wand so that they would not run away from the herd throughout the district and would sing a cheerful song. So, catching up with one of the loose sheep, the shepherd came across a marmot hole, there were a lot of them on the area. Looking at his feet, the young man saw near the hole a number of black, smooth stones of small size, which apparently the marmots had thrown out of their hole. The shepherd has heard numerous stories that the lands of Karagandy are rich in minerals, and in particular precious metals: gold, silver and copper, which are stored in the entrails of the earth. Moreover, the one who is lucky enough to find a "treasury" will gain great wealth and fame. Recalling this, the young man took a few stones from the ground, put them in a bag and hurried to drive the flock to return home as soon as possible and tell the aksakals (wise men) about his find. In the evening, sitting by the fire together with the wise men, the young shepherd showed black stones that glittered like polished.
Wise men concluded together that the stones were not gold, silver or copper, but it was not even the soil. Then one of the stones fell into the fire and inflamed. “The stone is burning!” The elders exclaimed in surprise. In the morning, the news of the unusual burning stone, which the shepherd Appak found, spread all over the district.
Today Karagandy is a large modern city and a center of coal mining in Kazakhstan. Even before the beginning of the twentieth century, there was a desert here, until active mining of the businessmen from Russia, France and England began in these areas.
If we talk about the cultural heritage of Karagandy, then we can note the presence in the city of a large number of historical and cultural monuments, as well as numerous museums of different directions: from the local history museum, the museum of fine art to the ecological museum. In addition, there is a large zoo on the territory of the city, there are theaters, cinemas, restaurants, comfortable hotels and other cultural and entertainment facilities.