Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a small portion of its territory in Eastern Europe. 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. Ethnic Kazakhs constitute a majority, while ethnic Russians form a significant minority. Officially secular, Kazakhstan is a Muslim-majority country with a sizeable Christian community.
Kazakhstan, the largest country fully within the Eurasian Steppe, has been a historical crossroads and home to numerous different peoples, states and empires throughout history. Throughout history, peoples on the territory of modern Kazakhstan had nomadic lifestyle, which developed and influenced Kazakh culture.
Petropavl ; Russian: Петропавловск, romanized: Petropavlovsk) is a city on the Ishim River in northern Kazakhstan close to the border with Russia. It is the capital of the North Kazakhstan Region. Population: 218,956. The city is also known colloquially in Kazakh as Qyzyljar.
Abai Qūnanbaiūly was a Kazakh poet, composer and Hanafi Maturidi theologian philosopher. He was also a cultural reformer toward European and Russian cultures on the basis of enlightened Islam. Among Kazakhs he is known simply as Abai.
The Kazakhs are a Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia and Eastern Europe. There are Kazakh communities in Kazakhstan's border regions in Russia, northern Uzbekistan, northwestern China, western Mongolia and Iran. The Kazakhs arose from the merging of various medieval tribes of Turkic and Mongolic origin in the 15th century.
Jetisu or Semirechye is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the southeastern part of modern Kazakhstan.
Modern Kazakh culture is mainly characterized as a synthesis of Tengrian nomadic and Islamic and European elements. Nomadic elements derived from predecessors, such as the Huns, First Turkic Khaganate, Golden Horde and Kazakh Khanate. Nomadism largely shaped its peculiar music, clothing, jewelry and oral literature. Kazakh culture also seems to be strongly influenced by the nomadic Scythians.
Kazakh, Qazaq or Kazakhstani may refer to someone or something related to Kazakhstan:
The Kazakh Steppe, also known as the Great Steppe or Great Dala, is a vast region of open grassland in Central Asia, covering areas in northern Kazakhstan and adjacent areas of Russia. It lies east of the Pontic–Caspian steppe and west of the Emin Valley steppe, with which it forms the central and western part of the Eurasian steppe. The Kazakh Steppe is an ecoregion of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome in the Palearctic realm. Before the mid-19th century, it was called the Kirghiz steppe, 'Kirghiz' being an old Russian word for the Kazakhs.
Traditional Kazakh cuisine is the traditional food of the Kazakh people. It is focused on mutton and horse meat, as well as various milk products. For hundreds of years, Kazakhs were herders who raised fat-tailed sheep, Bactrian camels, and horses, relying on these animals for transportation, clothing, and food. The cooking techniques and major ingredients have been strongly influenced by the nation's nomadic way of life. For example, most cooking techniques are aimed at long-term preservation of food. There is a large practice of salting and drying meat so that it will last, and there is a preference for sour milk, as it is easier to save in a nomadic lifestyle.
The Kazakh Khanate, in eastern sources known as Ulus of the Kazakhs, Ulus of Jochi, Yurt of Urus, was a Kazakh state in Central Asia, successor of the Golden Horde existing from the 15th to the 19th century, centered on the eastern parts of the Desht-i Qipchaq.
The Eurasian Steppe, also called the Great Steppe or The Steppes, is the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome. It stretches through Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, southern Russia, Kazakhstan, Xinjiang, Mongolia and Manchuria, with one major exclave, the Pannonian steppe, located mostly in Hungary.
Shokan Shyngysuly Walikhanov, given name Mukhammed Kanafiya was a Kazakh scholar, ethnographer, historian and participant in the Great Game. His reputation "as the father of modern Kazakh history and ethnography" is recorded in the Historical Dictionary of Kazakhstan. The Kazakh Academy of Sciences became the Ch.Ch. Valikhanov Kazakh Academy of Sciences in 1960. English-language texts sometimes give his name as "Chokan Valikhanov", based on a transliteration of the Russian spelling that he used himself.
Roza Kuanyshkyzy Rymbayeva is a Soviet and Kazakh singer, the people's artist of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic (1986).
Bayanaul National Park is a national park in Kazakhstan located on the outskirts of the Kazakh Uplands in the northeastern Pavlodar Province, 140 km from the city of Ekibastuz. Established in 1985, it is Kazakhstan's first national park. The park encompasses 68,453 hectares and was created to conserve the natural flora and fauna of the Bayanaul Range. It is included on the list of protected areas in Kazakhstan.
Qapal, formerly known as Kopal, is a village in Aksu District in Jetisu Region of south-eastern Kazakhstan. It is situated on the river Qapal. Until 1921, it was an uyezd center of the Semirechye Oblast.
Aigerim Kojakanova is a Kazakhstani beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Kazakhstan 2013 for Miss Universe 2013. She competed at the pageant in Moscow, Russia.
Zhazira Abdrakhmanovna Zhapparkul is a Kazakh Olympian weightlifter who competes in the women's 69 kg weight category. She took silver medals at the 2014 and 2015 World Championships. She represented Kazakhstan at the 2016 Summer Olympics, she placed second, winning the silver medal.
Aktobe is a city on the Ilek River in Kazakhstan. It is the administrative center of the Aktobe Region. In 2023, it had a population of 560,820.
Lucy Sherrard Atkinson was an English explorer and author who travelled throughout Central Asia and Siberia during the mid-19th century.
