GEOGRAPHY
Five
times the size of France and half the size of the United States,
Kazakhstan is the second largest state in the Commonwealth of
Independent States, and is bordered by the Russian Federation
to the north and west, the Caspian Sea, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
to the southwest, Kyrgyzstan to the south and China to the southeast.
90% of the country is made up of steppe, the sand massives of
the Kara Kum and the vast desert of Kizilkum, while in the southeast
of the country the mountains of the Tien Shan and the Altai form
a great natural frontier with tens of thousands of lakes and rivers.
The Aral Sea and Lake Balkhash are the country's largest expanses
of water.
Area:
2.7 million sq. ki.; ninth-largest nation in the world; the
size of Western Europe.
Major cities: Capital--Astana (June 1998); Almaty (former
capital), Karaganda, Chimkent.
Terrain: Extends east to west from the Caspian Sea to the
Altay Mountains and north to south from the plains of Western
Siberia to the oasis and desert of Central Asia.
Climate: Continental, cold winters and hot summers; arid
and semiarid
Border lengths: Russia 6,846 km, Uzbekistan 2,203 km, China
1,533 km, Kyrgyzstan 1,051 km, and Turmenistan 379 km.
Population: 16,733,227 (2000).
Population Density: 6.2 per sq km.
Capital: Astana (formerly called Akmola).
