Tekeli, Kazakhstan

'Tekeli (1955)

Determination and further development of Tekeli started in the 1920s when Dzhungar Survey Expedition revealed rich mineral deposits near the future town location.

In 1927 there began a more structured search for deposits of minerals in Dzungarian Alatau Mountains. The year of 1933 was prominent for discovering a deposit of polimetals such as lead, zinc, silver, cadmium and germanium. In 1939 construction of the Tekeli Lead-Zinc Factory was started. Concurrently development of a settlement was started for the miners which would become the future town of Tekeli. The development and life of the city depended of the "Lead-Zinc industrial complex", which was one of the largest in the USSR. During the II World War, this Deposit gave the country lead for every eighth bullet. Later, in the post-war period, the Tekeli village began to increase in size, the construction of residential buildings was declared a shock construction site, and a stream of volunteers arrived from all over the Soviet Union. Homes and industrial facilities in the Tekeli built not only by visiting builders, but also by Japanese prisoners of the II war. In 1952, the village granted the status of a city. The Tekeli grew and developed rapidly. Residential blocks built here, kindergartens, schools, parks and cinemas built. It was incorporated on January 29, 1952 by the decree of Kazakh Soviet Republic Presidium. The name of the city comes from the species of animals that once lived in abundance in the gorges of these rivers: Teke - mountain goat, skiff - a small antelope. Hunting scenes of the Uisun tribes depicted on rock paintings near the city. The city of the Tekeli is located in the upper reaches of the Karatal River in the foothills of the Dzungar Alatau, at the confluence of the Kora (Karoy, karinka), Chazhi (Chizhi, Chizhinka) and Tekelinka rivers. The city also had the only electrified narrow-gauge railway in Kazakhstan. Dismantled in the early 2000s.

Tekeli has been subject to conflicts between the government and Krishna believers in recent years.[1]

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  Yurt in Tekeli
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  Nowruz in 2013
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  Nowruz in 2013
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  Orthodox church

Tekeli will host one of the three campuses of the University of Central Asia (UCA) founded in 2000 by the governments of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan, and His Highness the Aga Khan.[2] It is the world's first internationally chartered institution of higher education. UCA currently operates a School of Professional and Continuing Education (SPCE) in Tekeli[3] which is a leading provider of post-secondary, short-cycle education as well as an academic publisher in the region. The Tekeli campus will offer Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees in Engineering Sciences and Business and Management[4] and is anticipated to open in 2022.

In this city was born the soviet weightlifter Yuri Zaypulayev ex champion among juniors in the Kazakh SSR. In 1842, the famous Kazakh Akyn and zhyrshy Baktybay Zholbarysuly were born in this region.