Central Asia

Columns: City | Country | Population | Information
Nur-Sultan | Kazakhstan | 1,006,574 ( 2017 ) | The capital and second largest city in Kazakhstan . After Kazakhstan gained its independence in 1991 , the city and the region were renamed from Tselinograd to Aqmola . The name was often translated as White Tombstone , but actually means Holy Place or Holy Shrine . The White Tombstone literal translation was too appropriate for many visitors to escape notice in almost all guide books and travel accounts . In 1994 , the city was designated as the future capital of the newly independent country and again renamed to the Astana after the capital was officially moved from Almaty in 1997 . In 2019 the city was renamed one more time to Nur-Sultan to honor the resigned president | Almaty | Kazakhstan | 1,713,220 ( 2017 ) | It was the capital of Kazakhstan ( and its predecessor , the Kazakh SSR ) from 1929 to 1998 . Despite losing its status as the capital , Almaty remains the major commercial center of Kazakhstan . It is a recognized financial center of Kazakhstan and the Central Asian region | Bishkek | Kyrgyzstan | 1,027,200 ( 2019 ) | The capital and the largest city of Kyrgyzstan . Bishkek is also the administrative center of Chuy Region , which surrounds the city , even though the city itself is not part of the region , but rather a region-level unit of Kyrgyzstan | Mazar-e Sharif | Afghanistan | 375,181 ( 2008 ) | The fourth largest city in Afghanistan and the capital of Balkh province , is linked by roads to Kabul in the southeast , Herat to the west and Uzbekistan to the north | Dushanbe | Tajikistan | 780,000 ( 2014 ) | The capital and largest city of Tajikistan . Dushanbe means Monday in Tajik and Persian , and the name reflects the fact that the city grew on the site of a village that originally was a popular Monday marketplace | Ashgabat | Turkmenistan | 1,032,000 ( 2014 ) | The capital and largest city of Turkmenistan . Ashgabat is a relatively young city , growing out of a village of the same name established by Russians in 1818 . It is not far from the site of Nisa , the ancient capital of the Parthians , and it grew on the ruins of the Silk Road city of Konjikala , which was first mentioned as a wine-producing village in the 2nd century BCE and was leveled by an earthquake in the 1st century BCE ( a precursor of the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake ) . Konjikala was rebuilt because of its advantageous location on the Silk Road , and it flourished until its destruction by Mongols in the 13th century CE . After that , it survived as a small village until the Russians took over in the 19th century | Bukhara | Uzbekistan | 237,900 ( 1999 ) | The nation 's fifth-largest city and the capital of the Bukhara Region of Uzbekistan . Bukhara has been one of the main centers of Persian civilization from its early days in the 6th century BCE , and , since the 12th century CE , Turkic speakers gradually moved in . Its architecture and archaeological sites form one of the pillars of Central Asian history and art

Example questions:
Which president 's departure preceded the renaming of the Central Asian city with a population of 1,006,574 ? | Oblast means this in the Central Asian Osh Region ? | What Soviet leader was the Central Asian city with a population of 780,000 named after ? | Who led the Russian forces to destroy a fortress in the Central Asian city in the Kyrgyzstan with a population of 1,027,200 ? | Which mountain 's foothills is the Central Asian city in Kazakhstan with a population of 1,713,220 located ?

Answers:
Nursultan Nazarbayev | Osh Region | Joseph Stalin | Apollon Zimmermann | Trans-Ili Alatau