[4] A local legend suggests that the name is derived from the term Qarqara [kk], a decorative Kazakh headpiece.

[citation needed] Like other places in the Kazakh Steppes, Karkaraly's climate is characterized by long, cold winters, and hot summers.

[6] The summer months of June through August, often sees daily temperatures exceeding 25 °C, as well as more precipidation than other parts of the year.

The earliest archeological finds connected with ancient people dates back to the Paleolithic (or Stone) Age.

The remains of a fighting chariot have been found in the tomb of an Andronovo soldier, excavated in the Karkaraly area.

During the late Bronze Age (13th–9th centuries BC), successors of the Andronovo people created the Begazy-dandybai culture.

Another famous archeological site, from more recent times, is the mid-17th century Dzungar monastery, in the Kent Mountains.

[2][3] In 1868, Karkaraly was incorporated as a town, and became the capital of a Tsarist district, which formed part of the Semipalatinsk Region.

[2] Major cultural figures who visited Karkaraly during the time of the Russian Empire included Abai Kunanbaev, Shoqan Walikhanov, Mikhail Prishvin, Grigory Potanin, Aleksandr Zatayevich, and Mukhtar Auezov.

[8] The following ore deposits have all been found and mined in the area: barite, iron, copper, gold, molybdenum, and tungsten.

[citation needed] In the Karkaraly mountains, nearly 100 minerals can be found, including: smoky topaz, crystal, chalcopyrite, azurite, chalcedony, and malachite.

[citation needed] Significant reserves of building materials are also in the area: granite, marble, limestone, gypsum, gravel, pebbles and sand.

[citation needed] Since Soviet times, Karkaraly National Park has drawn considerable tourism to the town.

[7] In addition to tourists, many researchers and students travel to Karkaraly to study the region's ecology and archeological sites.

Shoqan Walikhanov, a Kazakh ethnographer and historian, visited the town twice and wrote a piece on the local culture.

[2] Writer and activist Mukhtar Auezov also visited the town shortly after the Alash Autonomy declared independence.

As a child, Аbai Kunanbaev traveled through this area on his way to the Koyandy Fair and stayed in “the dark blue house” that belonged to a local family.

[2][3] Permission for the construction was granted in 1847 by the heads of the 16 surrounding townships and stamped by Sultan Kusbeka Taukeuly.

The mosque served as a place to educate children and the spread the word of Islam in the Karkaraly District.

[3] Grigory Potanin, a famous Russian traveler, visited Karkaraly in 1913 to study Kazakh folklore.

[2] During his time in Karkaraly, Potanin stayed in a house that belonged a local merchant surnamed Ryazantsev.

[2] In the spring of 1921, after being defeated near the city of Akmola, an armed detachment of rebels led by Captain Tokarev retreated south-east to the border of China.

On April 6, 700 wagons carrying 2,500 people entered Karkaraly, where there were only 50 Red Army soldiers and about 60 Communists.

On April 23, the detachment, including volunteers from Pavlodar (550 bayonets and 70 swords), overtook the rebels 180 km southeast of Karkaraly.

In autumn of 1921, an agreement with the Chinese authorities allowed the 13th Caucasian division of the Red Army to cross the border.

Two stones in front of the memorial read in Russian and Kazakh: “Eternal glory to our local countrymen who fell in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.”[citation needed]