The Karaganda Ecological Museum, run by a dedicated, campaigning environmental NGO, is aimed at local schoolchildren and is the most imaginative museum in the country. Everything can be touched, and this includes large rocket parts that have fallen on the steppe after Baykonur space launches, and debris collected from the Semipalatinsk Polygon. Other display topics include the saiga antelope and chemical safety in Kazakhstan. Labelling is in Russian only; request an English tour in advance.
The entrance is beneath an ‘Ortalykkazzherkoynauy’ sign next to some Soviet mosaics.