Kazakhstan

Location:

The country of Kazakhstan just so happens to be the largest

country in the world compared to all other landlocked countries.
With all countries in mind, Kazakhstan is the ninth largest out
of a total of 196 countries. With such high rankings, Kazakhstan
is located in two different continents. The country's
westernmost regions are part of Europe, while its central and
eastern areas are found in Central Asia.

Kazakhstan shares borders with five other surrounding countries.

Russia lies to the north of Kazakhstan, while China is along the
country's eastern border. The three countries to the south of
Kazakhstan are Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. The
Aral Sea is located along Kazakhstan's southern border as well,
just between a portion of its border with Uzbekistan. The
Caspian Sea is situated along Kazakhstan’s westernmost border.

Kazakhstan's GPS Coordinates

The GPS coordinates of Kazakhstan indicate where Kazakhstan is

on a map. The latitude of Kazakhstan is 48.0196° N, and the
country's longitude is 66.9237° E. As a country in both the
northern and eastern hemispheres, Kazakhstan is positioned above
the equator.

Points of Extremity in Kazakhstan

In the north, Kazakhstan has an extreme point of 55°43' N. At

this latitude, a shared border separates Kazakhstan and Russia.
The southernmost point of Kazakhstan is situated along the
country's border with Uzbekistan. The coordinate of this point
is a latitude of 40°34' N.

In the east, the furthest point of Kazakhstan has a longitudinal

coordinate of 87°30' E. As part of the East Kazakhstan Province,
the easternmost point of Kazakhstan is located along the border
that Kazakhstan shares with both China and Russia. To the west,
Kazakhstan reaches a point of extremity with a longitude of
50°00' E. The westernmost point of Kazakhstan is located in the
West Kazakhstan Province, where the border between Russia and
Kazakhstan lies.

Land Area:
 The total area of Kazakhstan is roughly 1,052,089 square
miles. Of this total, about 1,030,776 square miles are dedicated
land regions, and the remaining 21,312 square miles are taken up
by water resources.

Capital:

While most cities in the world developed spontaneously,

Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana), the capital city of Kazakhstan was
a result of a design drawn by a Japanese architect called Kisho
Kurokawa. In a bid to consolidate all government offices in one
location, the modern city brought together the parliament,
Supreme Court, the presidential palace, and virtually all
government departments. This was followed by the establishment
of several facilities including shopping malls, hospitals,
educational centers, sports stadiums, tourist sites, and
recreational theatres. Nur-Sultan is the second largest city in
Kazakhstan after the city of Almaty. The location of Nur-Sultan
in the central region of the country makes it easily accessible
from all corners. The city covers an estimated area of 278
square miles and is home to more than one million residents. The
temperatures range between 35 °C in summer to -30 °C in winter.

Currency:

The Kazakhstani tenge/tenge is the currency of Kazakhstan. It is

divided into 100 tıyn (тиын, also transliterated as tiyin or
tijin). The ISO-4217 code is KZT.

Climate:

Kazakhstan climate is extremely continental and very dry. It has

cold winters and hot summers. The hottest month is July (August
in mountain regions). In summer the temperatures average is more
than 30 degrees Celsius (86 °Fahrenheit) and in winter the
average is -20 °C (-4.0 °F). However seasonal temperatures vary
depending on which region. The best time to visit Kazakhstan is
in spring (April to June) or in autumn (September to October)
when temperatures are mild and pleasant.

Regions of Kazakhstan:

Kazakhstan is divided into 14 regions. The regions are further

subdivided into districts. Four cities, Baikonur, Shymkent, the
largest city Almaty, and the capital Nur-Sultan are not part of
the regions they are surrounded by.

Government of Kazakhstan
The Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan oversees a
presidential republic. The President of Kazakhstan, currently
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, is head of state and nominates the head
of government. Executive power is exercised by the government.
Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two
chambers of parliament.

In July 2015, Kazakhstan was ranked 50th in the Government

Efficiency Index compiled by World Economic Forum. The
efficiency index considers expenditures, workload regulations
and political transparency. Kazakhstan beats of a number of
European countries in government efficiency, according to the
list. In particular, Kazakhstan is ahead of Belgium and France.

According to the 2016 World Development report prepared by the

World Bank Group, Kazakhstan ranks 28th among 193 countries in
the e-Gov development rating. The “Information Kazakhstan –
2020” state program approved in 2013 helped the country
transition to the information society.

Population:

 The current population of Kazakhstan is 18,587,010 as of

Wednesday, August 28, 2019, based on the latest United
Nations estimates.
 Kazakhstan population is equivalent to 0.24% of the total
world population.
 Kazakhstan ranks number 64 in the list of countries (and
dependencies) by population.
 The population density in Kazakhstan is 7 per Km2 (18
people per mi2).
 57.7 % of the population is urban (10,698,322 people in
2019)
 The median age in Kazakhstan is 29.6 years.

Religion:

Islam is the majority religion in Kazakhstan followed by Eastern

Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christianity.

Islam

Islam is practiced by up to 70.2% of the entire country’s

population. The Sunni Islams are the dominant group, but Shia
Muslims and the Ahmadi can also be found. Islam was brought into
the country in the 8th century by the Arabs who came and settled
in central Asia. The Kazakhs in the country accepted Islam due
to missionary work done by the Samanid Rulers. Ever since then,
the support for the Islam grew, and efforts were made by the
Russians ensure it had become popular even in the 18th century.
Though the Russians eventually started campaigns to weaken the
Islamic beliefs, Islam survived even after the fall of the
Soviet Union. After the country had gained its independence,
several mosques and schools were constructed. This ensured the
popular growth of Islam in the country.

Christianity - 26.3%

Christianity is the second largest religion in Kazakhstan, with

26.3% of the total population practicing it. Most Christians in
Kazakhstan are Eastern Orthodox, and to a lesser extent, Roman
Catholic. Most of its members belong to the Russians, Ukrainian,
and the Belarusians ethnic groups. In the early 19th century, the
Kazakhstan church was part of the Orthodox Church in Turkestan,
but in 1945 it was divided into smaller dioceses where an
Orthodox church was built in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Several other
churches and smaller groups had been founded and are still
undergoing growth.

The Roman Catholic Christianity in Kazakhstan is part of the

universal Catholic church in Rome under the leadership of the
pope. 1.7% of the entire country’s population are Roman
Catholic. In 1960, two Catholic churches had been built by the
priests and clergy who had been deported to various camps in the
country. After the fall of communism in 1991, the population of
Catholics in Kazakhstan began to decrease.

Irreligious - 2.9%

Around 2.9% of the population of Kazakhstan does not consider

themselves to be religious. These include atheists, agnostics,
and unaffiliated populations.

Other religions - 0.1%

Some of the other religions practiced in Kazakhstan include neo-

Paganism, Tengrism, Shamanism, Animism, and other Folk Beliefs.
These are the traditional or folk beliefs of Kazakh people and
0.3% practice them in day to day lives. It includes the belief
in spirits and animism where they believe non-human objects have
spirits, praying and offering sacrifices to dead ancestors. They
also practice shamanism where priests who cure by magic, control
various events, and communicate with the spirits are consulted.

Irreligion, Protestant Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism,

Judaism, Baha'i Faith, and Other Beliefs
All these other minority religions in the country are practiced
by up to 3.1% of the country’s entire population. They include
Baha’i faith where they believe in spiritual unity by all
humans, Protestants Christian faith and unity, Judaism,
Hinduism, Christian Science, Buddhism, Jehovah’s witnesses and
Lutherans.

Language:

Kazakh or Kazak is a Turkic language of the Kipchak branch

spoken in Central Asia. It is closely related to Nogai, Kyrgyz
and Karakalpak. Kazakh is the official language of Kazakhstan
and a significant minority language in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous
Prefecture in Xinjiang, China and in the Bayan-Ölgii Province of
Mongolia. Kazakh is also spoken by many ethnic Kazakhs through
the former Soviet Union (approximately 472,000 in Russia
according to the 2010 Russian Census), Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey
and Germany.

Like other Turkic languages, Kazakh is an agglutinative language

and it employs vowel harmony.

In October 2017, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev decreed

that the government would transition from using Cyrillic to the
Latin alphabet by 2025. President Nazarbayev signed on February
19, 2018 an amendment to the decree of October 26, 2017 No. 569
"On translating the Kazakh alphabet from Cyrillic alphabet to
the Latin script." The amended alphabet uses ⟨sh⟩ and ⟨ch⟩ for the
Kazakh sounds /ɕ/ and /tɕ/, respectively, and eliminates the use
of apostrophes.
Flag of Kazakhstan

The current flag of Kazakhstan or Kazakh flag was adopted on 4 June

1992, replacing the flag of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. The
flag was designed by Shaken Niyazbekov. The color choices had
preserved the blue and gold from the Soviet era flag minus the red.
The color red was used in early designs of the current flag, and
continues to be used in variants for the Kazakh Armed Forces.

The national flag of the Republic of Kazakhstan has a gold sun with 32
rays above a soaring golden steppe eagle, both centered on a sky blue
background; the hoist side displays a national ornamental pattern
"koshkar-muiz" (the horns of the ram) in gold; the blue color is of
religious significance to the Turkic peoples of the country, and so
symbolizes cultural and ethnic unity; it also represents the endless
sky as well as water; the sun, a source of life and energy,
exemplifies wealth and plenitude; the sun's rays are shaped like
grain, which is the basis of abundance and prosperity; the eagle has
appeared on the flags of Kazakh tribes for centuries and represents
freedom, power, and the flight to the future. The width of the flag to
its length is 1:2.

The gold and blue colors were inherited from the former Soviet flag
which were the gold from the hammer and sickle and the cyan bar from
the bottom of the flag. The pattern represents the art and cultural
traditions of the old khanate and the Kazakh people. The sky blue
background symbolizes the peace, freedom, cultural, and ethnic unity
of Kazakh people including the various Turkic people that make up the
present-day population such as the Kazakhs, Tatars, Uyghurs, Uzbeks,
as well as the significant Mongol and Russian peoples. The sun
represents a source of life and energy. It is also a symbol of wealth
and abundance; the sun's rays are a symbol of the steppe's grain which
is the basis of abundance and prosperity.

People of different Kazakh tribes had the golden eagle on their flags
for centuries. The eagle symbolizes the power of the state. For the
modern nation of Kazakhstan the eagle is a symbol of independence,
freedom and flight to the future
The President of the Republic of Kazakhstan

KASSYM-JOMART K. TOKAYEV

Born on May 17, 1953 in the city of Alma-Ata (now Almaty).

Father - Kemel T. Tokayev (1923-1986), a veteran of World War
II, a well-known writer, founder of a detective-adventure genre
in Kazakh literature. Mother - Turar Shabarbayeva (1931-2000),
worked for the Alma-Ata Teacher Training Institute of Foreign
Languages.
The President of the Republic of Kazakhstan is the head of
state, commander-in-chief and holder of the highest office
within the Republic of Kazakhstan. The powers of this position
are described in a special section of the Constitution of
Kazakhstan.
The position was established on 24 April 1990, a year before the
dissolution of the Soviet Union. The current President is
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who assumed office on 20 March 2019
following the resignation of the first President, Nursultan
Nazarbayev.
None of the presidential elections held in Kazakhstan have been
considered free or fair by Western standards with issues noted
including ballot tampering, multiple voting, harassment of
opposition candidates and press censorship.
Famous People:

MARAT BISSENGALIYEV

Marat Bissengaliyev, a famous violin player. He is 50. Born in

Almaty, he currently lives most of the time in Great Britain and
India. He is the citizen of Kazakhstan, even though he has been
living in Great Britain for over 20 years. He is an Honored
Artist of Kazakhstan, a professor of Birmingham Conservatory and
one of directors of the Alliance of Asia-Pacific Region
Orchestras (AAPRO).

MARAT ZHYLANBAYEV

Marat Zhylanbayev, a marathon runner from Ekibastuz. He was the

first person to cross Sahara north to south. Zhylanbayev has set
seven records of the Guinness Book. In 150 years of Around the
World magazine Marat Zhylanbayev became the first Kazakhstan
citizens mentioned in the magazine. He is 48.
Famous Wonders:

BEKTAU-ATA TRACT (CENTRAL KAZAKHSTAN)

Coordinates: 47 ° 27'10 "с.ш. 74 ° 46'59" в.д.

This amazing place of northern Balkhash has a Martian-like

volcanic origin. An unusual rock mass appeared as a result of
melting of mountain formations during the genesis of the
volcano, which never exploded.

In addition to capricious stone forms, here you can find rare

species of plants. In the spring in the lowlands tracts are
covered with deciduous groves and thorn bushes, but closer to
summer the relief gets full of sweet fragrant steppe grass.

On the south-western slope of the range, one can find the cave
with spring water, called "Auliye". According to the legends,
this healing spring helps women coming to pray for desirable but
yet not happened motherhood.

During the day, the shadows in the stone corridors of Bektau-Ata

follow sun's movement by changing the image of rocky massif on
the hourly basis.
 SHAITANKOL (CENTRAL KAZAKHSTAN)

Mysterious lake Shaitankol is located five kilometers from

Karkaralinsk, at 1,200 meters above the sea level. Its black
waters are surrounded by rocks with odorous pinewood on the top
of them.

The lake was called devilish by locals because of the "devilry"

that has always been accompanying this place: sometimes people
disappear by the lakeside, sometimes the whole herd. According
to the one of local legends, bishop Mikhail tried to sanctify
the lake in the beginning of the last century. After
sanctification people installed the cross on the western shore
of the lake which disappeared in half of the year.

Local folktales formed the basis for the poem of Sabit Mukanov
"Sulushash". The poem tells the story of two lovers who escaped
for the sake of their love. Also, the description of this
picturesque lake can be found in the Michael Prishvin's "Steppe
Sketch".

The Karkaralinsk itself has been positively transformed in the

recent years: new sidewalks appeared, the building in which
Russian traveler and geographer Potanin lived was renovated, as
well as the wooden house where Abay Kunanbayev was staying.