Oskemen

About Oskemen

Öskemen or Ust-Kamenogorsk is the largest city in eastern Kazakhstan and the administrative center of the East Kazakhstan Region.

The city has two official names. In the Kazakh language, its name is Oskemen (Өскемен). In Russian, it is known as Ust-Kamenogorsk (Усть-Каменогорск), derived from the words "mouth" (usta), "stone" (kamen), and "mountain" (gorsk). The word Oskemen is the Kazakh-language version of the Russian name. Both names appear on the seal of the city.

The city was founded in 1720 at the confluence of the Irtysh and Ulba rivers as a fort and trading post named Ust-Kamennaya. It was established according to the order of the Russian Emperor Peter the Great, who sent a military expedition headed by major Ivan Mihailovich Likharev in search of Yarkenda gold. Likharev's expedition traveled up the Irtysh River toward Zaysan Lake.

The Ust-Kamennaya Fortress was laid at the junction of the Ulba and the Irtysh rivers. The fortress appeared on the map of the Russian Empire on the very southern end of the Irtysh line. In 1868, the city became the capital of the Semipalatinsk...

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.