Tag Archives: Study in Kazakhstan

A country of endless flat steppes that slope down towards the central semi-desert lands and the mountain ranges to the S and E, Kazakhstan is, with its nearly three million km² of extension, one of the largest states on the continent. The morphological differences of the territory have also marked in the past the different cultures that settled and developed in the country: to the N, land of nomadic populations, who crossed the long Kazakh expanses with their empires, bringing their followers to the heart of the twentieth century, leaving only superficial traces of their passage; to the S, territory occupied by sedentary populations, stopped in the Turkestan region and along the mountains of the southern border, between the Aral Sea and that of Balhaš, in the wake of the trade linked to that network of transnational caravan routes among the most inaccessible places on the planet, known as the Silk Road. The Kazakhs were subject to the invasions of various hordes of nomadic peoples, from the Saci (of which one of the most precious national archaeological finds remains, the uniform of the “Golden Man”, relating to a warrior prince and found in ancient tombs) to Huns or the Turks from Mongolia and China. Then administered by the great empires such as that of the Sassanids, the Mongols of Genghis Khān and finally the Russians, owe their origins to this mixture of passages that led first to the constitution of the various khanates into which the country was divided, then to the annexation with the Soviet Union and finally to the constitution of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Kazakhstan in the 1930s. Almost 500 years after the appearance in the country of the Uzbek ethnic group, from whose lineage the Kazakhs (“free knights, adventurers”) properly called. Considered an extension of Russia in the twentieth century, Kazakhstan, on several occasions, was subject to repatriation and exodus, especially Soviet, which brought together heterogeneous groups by condition, origin, motivations: from political dissidents of the Communist regime in exile, to workers sent to labor camps by Stalin first and by Khrushchev then, to build the great urban cathedrals and clear up the “virgin lands” of the five-year plans. It was also considered land to be deprived to carry out nuclear tests in the Semipalatinsk Polygon, around the city of “nothing”, Kūrchatov. Forcibly forced to become sedentary farmers on collective Soviet farms, the ancient Kazakh nomads had to face a period of profound cultural transformations, not free from bloody riots, which decimated herds and residents. In the final decades of the twentieth century, after the achievement of autonomy from the Soviet giant and the reconversion of the economy towards activities linked to the industrial sector and the exploitation of underground energy resources, the country finally embarked on a path towards development and growth. According to COUNTRYAAH, Kazakhstan is a nation in Central Asia, the capital city of which is Astana. The latest population of Kazakhstan is 18,776,718. ACEINLAND: Lists and descriptions of main religions and beliefs in Kazakhstan, including religion demographics and statistics on Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc.
GEOGRAPHY
Extended for approx. 3000 km from W to E, that is from the lower course of the Volga River to the Altaj, and for 1500 km from N to S, from southwestern Siberia to Tian Shan, Kazakhstan has a very varied morphology: however, the plains in the western and northern sectors prevail and the other lands in the eastern and southern ones. Proceeding from W, the Turanian Lowland first extends; overlooking the Caspian Sea, it is limited to the N and E by modest reliefs, among which is the Mugodžary Range (657 m), while it communicates with the Western Siberian Lowland through a depression known as the Turgaj Gate. Towards the E, beyond a vast plateau (Heights of Kazakhstan) dominated by Mount Aqsoran bīigi (1566 m), the relief becomes more rugged, until it reaches, on the eastern border, the Altai ranges and on the southern one the Tian Shan. The northern and south-eastern sectors are the only ones to be crossed by rivers that tributary to open seas; the rest of the area has characteristics areiche or endoreiche. Main rivers are the Irtyš and the Išim, tributaries of the Kara Sea through the Ob ‘; the Ural and the Emba, which flow into the Caspian Sea; the Syrdarīya and Ili, which flow into the Aral Sea and Balhaš Lake respectively; the Torghay, which is lost in the Turanian lowland; the Sarysu and the Ču, which are exhausted in the steppes of the Betpaqdala (Steppe of Hunger). The main inland basins, in addition to the Caspian Sea, are the Aral Sea, of which the entire northern sector belongs to Kazakhstan, the Balhaš, the Alakol, the Zajsan, the Tengiz. The climate is continental, with rigid winters and very hot summers; on almost all of the territory, rainfall is less than 300 mm per year, so agriculture is not possible except in oases or irrigated areas; only at the northern, eastern and south-eastern edges does rain fall sufficient for agricultural needs.