Kazakhstan, also spelled Kazakstan (Kazakh: Қазақстан, Qazaqstan; Russian: Казахстан, Kazakhstán, Russian pronunciation: ), officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a country in Central Asia and Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world as well as the world’s largest landlocked country, it has a territory of 2,727,300 km² (greater than Western Europe). It is bordered by Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and China.
The country also borders on a significant part of the Caspian Sea.A huge country covering a territory equivalent to the whole of Western Europe, Kazakhstan has vast mineral resources and enormous economic potential. The varied landscape stretches from the mountainous, heavily populated regions of the east to the sparsely populated, energy-rich lowlands in the west, and from the industrialized north, with its Siberian climate and terrain, through the arid, empty steppes of the centre, to the fertile south. Islam is the largest religion in Kazakhstan, followed by Russian Orthodox Christianity.
Location: Central Asia, northwest of China; a small portion west of the Ural River in eastern-most Europe.
Capital: Astana
Official language: Kazakh
Government type: Republic
President: Nursultan A. Nazarbayev
Prime Minister: Karim Masimov
National Holiday: Independence Day, 16 December (1991)
Area
Climate: continental, cold winters and hot summers, arid and semiarid.
Population: 15 284 929 (July 2007)
Currency: Tenge (KZT)
Internet domain: .kz
International dialing code: +7
Sources: www.wikipedia.org