Kazakhstan

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

• total: 2 717 300 km²
• land: 2 669 800 km²
• water: 47 500 km²

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

http://news.bbc.co.uk