page_title: Geography of Kazakhstan
section_title: Topography and drainage
hierarchical_section_title: Geography of Kazakhstan / Topography and drainage
context_page_description: Kazakhstan is located in Central Asia and Eastern Europe at 48°N 68°E. With an area of about 2,724,900 square kilometers, Kazakhstan is more than twice the combined size of the other four Central Asian states and 60% larger than Alaska. The country borders Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan to the south; Russia to the north; Russia and the Caspian Sea to the west; and China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to the east.
context_section_description: There is considerable topographical variation within Kazakhstan. The highest point is the top of the mountain Khan Tengri, on the Kyrgyz border in the Tian Shan range, with an elevation of 7,010 m (23,000 ft) above sea level; the lowest point is the bottom of the Karagiye depression at 132 m (433 ft) below sea level, in the Mangystau province east of the Caspian Sea. Most of the country lies at between 200–300 m (660–980 ft) above sea level, but Kazakhstan's Caspian shore includes some of the lowest elevations on Earth. The peak Khan Tengri in the Tian Shan Mountains (and on the border with Kyrgyzstan and China) is Kazakhstan highest elevation at 6,995 m (22,949 ft) (7,010 m (23,000 ft) with ice cap).
  Many of the peaks of the Altay and Tien Shan ranges are covered with snow, year-round, and their runoff is the source for most of Kazakhstan's freshwater rivers, streams, and lakes.
  Except for the Tobol, Ishim, and Irtysh rivers (the Kazakh names for which are, respectively, Tobyl, Esil, and Ertis), portions of which flow through Kazakhstan, all of Kazakhstan's rivers and streams are part of landlocked systems. They either flow into isolated bodies of water such as the Caspian Sea or simply disappear into the steppes and deserts of central and southern Kazakhstan. Many rivers, streams, and lakes are seasonal, evaporating in summer. The three largest bodies of water are Lake Balkhash, a partially fresh, partially saline lake in the east, near Almaty, the Caspian Sea, and the Aral Sea, all of which lie partially within Kazakhstan.
  Some 9.4 percent of Kazakhstan's land is mixed prairie and forest or treeless prairie, primarily in the north or in the basin of the Ural River in the west. More than three-quarters of the country, including the entire west and most of the south, is either semidesert (33.2 percent) or desert (44 percent). The terrain in these regions is bare, eroded, broken uplands, with sand dunes in the Qizilqum ("The Red Sands"; in the Russian form, Kyzylkum) and Moyunqum (in the Russian form, Muyunkum (Муюнкум)) deserts, which occupy south-central Kazakhstan.
caption: Detailed map of Kazakhstan
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