Ekibastuz

Ekıbastūz (Kazakh: Екібастұз, romanized: Ekıbastūz, [jɛkəbɑsˈtus], ەكئباستۇز; Russian: Экибастуз) is a city in Pavlodar Region, northeastern Kazakhstan. It is the administrative center of the Ekibastuz City Administration. The population was 125,012 (2009 Census results);[2] 127,197 (1999 Census results).[2] Ekıbastūz is served by Ekıbastūz Airport. The history of Ekıbastūz begins in the 19th century, when Kosym Pshembayev, a native Kazakh who was commissioned by Russian merchants to look for mineral resources in that region, alighted on a coal field southeast of Pavlodar.[3] The commercial exploitation of the field started soon after. The field afterwards was sold to a British businessman, Leslie Urquhart. The village of Ekıbastūz was established in 1899, named after the nearby lake of the same name, which means 2 heads of salt in Kazakh (eki 'two' + bas 'head' + tuz 'salt').[4] The revolution in the Russian Empire, as well as two World Wars, distracted the attention of the state from the exploitation of the field. The village was totally deserted. However, in 1948 the first team (only 50 people) started construction of the future town. The borders of the future open-cast coal fields were also marked at that time.