Kazakhstan: Regions, Cities & Travel Guide

What is Kazakhstan known for?

The largest country in the region and the biggest of the former Soviet republics after Russia, it stretches over endless steppe rich in oil and natural gas. Space defines the place. Its cities, from the capital Astana to Almaty, the former capital, sit far apart across a land that runs from the Caspian Sea toward China.

Where is Kazakhstan?

Kazakhstan sits mostly in Central Asia, with its far western edge reaching into Eastern Europe. It is a landlocked giant, the largest country of the region by far, spread over vast plains of open steppe that run for great distances without a rise. The land goes on and on.

It ranks among the largest countries on earth. Only in the west does it meet open water, along the shore of the Caspian Sea, the inland sea it shares with its neighbours. Long land borders wrap the country on every side.

Russia lies to the north and the west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the south-east, Uzbekistan to the south, and Turkmenistan to the south-west. Neighbours ring it about. Astana, the capital, stands on the northern steppe, while Almaty, the largest city, lies far to the south near the mountains that wall the border.

Between them stretch the plains. The steppe gives way only slowly to desert in the south and to hills and mountains along the southern and eastern rim, where the flat land finally climbs toward the high country.

What is the history of Kazakhstan?

Kazakhstan took its modern form in 1991, when the Soviet Union dissolved and its largest republic after Russia became an independent country. The change came late in the century. Through the Soviet decades the vast steppe had been governed from afar, its oil, gas, and farmland tied into a union that reached from Central Asia to Eastern Europe, and Almaty served as the capital in those years and into the new republic.

The old order gave way slowly. Independence reshaped the country from the ground up. In 1997 the seat of government moved north from Almaty to a new capital on the steppe, later named Astana, and a planned city rose there to house the state.

The move redrew the map of power. Astana grew quickly on the open plain. Oil and natural gas, drawn from beneath the plains and the Caspian Sea, funded the young country's rise, while Almaty stayed the largest city and its economic and cultural centre.

From open steppe to modern republic, the land keeps the long horizon that has always defined it across Central Asia.

What is Kazakhstan like?

Kazakhstan holds together the culture of Central Asia and the mark of the Soviet century. Russian is widely spoken across the country, a common tongue carried over from the union years, and much of city life leans on the habits and institutions of that time. Two influences run side by side.

Almaty stands as the cultural centre and the largest city, where theatres, galleries, and cafes gather beneath the southern mountains, while the newer capital shows a different face in the towers of Astana. The steppe shapes the national imagination more than any building. Its emptiness and long horizons run through the country's sense of itself, a vast open land that has kept travellers captivated for generations.

Distance is part of the identity. The oil and gas wealth of recent generations has funded grand projects, none bolder than the planned capital raised on the northern plains, yet away from the cities the old rhythm of the steppe endures. From Almaty in the south to Astana in the north, the country carries both its Central Asian roots and its modern ambitions across the plains.

What is the climate of Kazakhstan?

Kazakhstan has a sharply continental climate, the mark of a vast landlocked interior. Winters run long and bitterly cold across the open steppe, while summers turn hot and dry, and the gap between the two seasons is among the widest of any settled land. Across the Kazakh steppe, spring and autumn are brief.

Only the Caspian Sea coast in the west softens the extremes a little.

How do you get to Kazakhstan?

Most travellers reach Kazakhstan by air, landing at Almaty or the capital Astana before setting out across the enormous distances of the steppe. The country is vast. Overland, rail lines and roads cross the borders from Russia to the north and China to the east, links inherited from the days of the Soviet Union.

Ferries also cross the Caspian Sea to the western shore.