Kazakhstan,^[b] officially the Republic of Kazakhstan,^[c] is a landlocked country mostly in Central Asia, with a small part in Eastern Europe.^[d] It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbekistan to the south, and Turkmenistan to the southwest, with a coastline along the Caspian Sea. Its capital is Astana, while the largest city and leading cultural and commercial hub is Almaty. Kazakhstan is the world’s ninth-largest country by land area and the largest landlocked country. It has a population of 20 million and one of the lowest population densities in the world, at fewer than 6 people per square kilometre (16 people/sq mi).^[12] Ethnic Kazakhs constitute a majority, while ethnic Russians form a significant minority. Officially secular, Kazakhstan is a Muslim-majority country, although ethnic Russians in the country form a sizeable Christian community.

Kazakhstan has been inhabited since the Paleolithic era. In antiquity, various nomadic Iranian peoples such as the Saka, Massagetae, and Scythians dominated the territory, with the Achaemenid Persian Empire expanding towards the southern region. Turkic nomads entered the region from as early as the sixth century. In the 13th century, the area was subjugated by the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan. Following the disintegration of the Golden Horde in the 15th century, the Kazakh Khanate was established over an area roughly corresponding with modern Kazakhstan. By the 18th century, the Kazakh Khanate had fragmented into three jüz (tribal divisions), which were gradually absorbed and conquered by the Russian Empire; by the mid-19th century, all of Kazakhstan was nominally under Russian rule.^[13] Following the 1917 Russian Revolution and subsequent Russian Civil War, the territory was reorganized several times. In 1936, its modern borders were established with the formation of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic within the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan was the last Soviet republic to declare independence during the dissolution of the Soviet Union from 1988 to 1991.

Kazakhstan dominates Central Asia economically and politically, accounting for 60 percent of the region’s GDP, primarily through its oil and gas industry; it also has vast mineral resources.^[14] Kazakhstan has the highest Human Development Index ranking in the region. It is de jure a democratic, unitary, constitutional republic;^[15] however, it is de facto an authoritarian regime^[16][17] with no free elections.^[18] Nevertheless, there have been incremental efforts at democratization and political reform since the 2019 resignation of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Kazakhstan is a member state of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Commonwealth of Independent States, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, Eurasian Economic Union, Collective Security Treaty Organization, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Organization of Turkic States, and International Organization of Turkic Culture.

THE MEANING THE WORD KAZAKH

The English word Kazakh, meaning a member of the Kazakh people, derives from Russian: казах.^[19] The native name is Kazakh: қазақ, romanized: qazaq. It might originate from the Turkic word verb qaz-, ‘to wander’, reflecting the Kazakhs’ nomadic culture. The term ‘Cossack’ is of the same origin.

In Turko-Persian sources, the term Özbek-Qazaq first appeared during the mid-16th century, in the Tarikh-i-Rashidi by Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat, a Chagatayid prince of Kashmir, which locates Kazakh in the eastern part of Desht-i Qipchaq.^[21] According to Vasily Bartold, the Kazakhs likely began using that name during the 15th century.^[22]

Though Kazakh traditionally referred only to ethnic Kazakhs, including those living in China, Russia, Turkey, Uzbekistan and other neighbouring countries, the term is increasingly being used to refer to any inhabitant of Kazakhstan, including residents of other ethnicities.^[23]

Kazakhstan has been inhabited since the Paleolithic era.^[24] The Botai culture (3700–3100 BC) is credited with the first domestication of horses. The Botai population derived most of their ancestry from a deeply European-related population known as Ancient North Eurasians, while also displaying some Ancient East Asian admixture.^[25] Pastoralism developed during the Neolithic. The population was Caucasoid during the Bronze and Iron Age period.^[26][27]

The Kazakh territory was a key constituent of the Eurasian trading Steppe Route, the ancestor of the terrestrial Silk Roads. Archaeologists believe that humans first domesticated the horse in the region’s vast steppes. During recent prehistoric times, Central Asia was inhabited by groups such as the possibly Indo-European Afanasievo culture,^[28] later early Indo-Iranian cultures such as Andronovo,^[29] and later Indo-Iranians such as the Saka and Massagetae.^[30][31] Other groups included the nomadic Scythians and the Persian Achaemenid Empire in the southern territory of the modern country. The Andronovo and Srubnaya cultures, precursors to the peoples of the Scythian cultures, were found to harbor mixed ancestry from the Yamnaya Steppe herders and peoples of the Central European Middle Neolithic.^[32]

In 329 BC, Alexander the Great and his Macedonian army fought in the Battle of Jaxartes against the Scythians along the Jaxartes River, now known as the Syr Darya along the southern border of modern Kazakhstan.

Top Attractions in Kazakhstan

Charyn Canyon (also known as Sharyn Canyon, Kazakh: Шарын шатқалы, Sharyn shatqaly) is a canyon on the Sharyn River in Kazakhstan (200 kilometres (120 mi) east of Almaty, close to the Chinese border). The canyon is roughly 154 kilometres (96 mi) in length. It is part of the Charyn National Park (established on 23 February 2004), and is located within the territory of the Uygur District, Raiymbek District and Enbekshikazakh District in the Almaty Region. The canyon features many formations formed by the weathering of sedimentary rock. Though it is much smaller than the Grand Canyon, it has been described as being equally impressive