Kazakhstan

**Kazakhstan**, (officially the Republic of Kazakhstan) a Central Asian country, extends from the Caspian Sea in the west to the Altai Mountains at its eastern border with China and Russia.

Capital: Astana (previous name Nur-Sultan) - 2nd largest city

Population: 18.5 mln = 18,592,700 (2020)

Area: 2.7 mln km² = 2,724,900 km² = 1,052,090 mi²

Low population density: 7 people/km² = 18 pop/mi² (as per 4th Jan 2020 - Wikipedia )

Currency: Kazakhstani tenge

Alphabet: Cyrillic in transition to Latin

Main cities: Almaty, Shymkent, Taraz, Aktau, Atyrau, Oral, Kostanai, Aktobe, Petropavl, Karagandy, Pavlodar, Semei, Oskemen, Kyzylorda, Taldykorgan

Ethnic groups : Kazakhstan is multiethnic country where the indigenous ethnic group, the Kazakhs, comprise the majority of the population.

* 67.5% Kazakhs

* 19.8% Russians

* 12.7% others (including Ukrainians, Uzbeks, Germans, Tatars, Uyghurs, Koreans, and Meskhetian Turks)

Kazakhstan's dominant ethnic group, the Kazakhs, traces its origin to the 15th century, when a number of Turkic and some Mongol tribes united to establish the Kazakh Khanate. With a cohesive culture and a national identity, they constituted an absolute majority on the land until Russian colonization.

Kazakhstan is one of the few places on Earth where normally-disparate Germanic, Indo-Iranian, Koreans, Chechen, and Turkic groups live together in a rural setting, not as a result of modern immigration, but due to early XX century history (sending colonists, dissendants, minority groups from Russia to Kazakhstan territory, as well as location of Russian labor camps from Stalin's times).

Religion:

* 70.2% Islam
* 26.3% Christianity
* 2.8% Atheists
* 0.7% other (including Judaism and Buddhism)

Geography Now YouTube channel:

The world’s ninth-biggest country is the most economically advanced of the ‘stans’, thanks to its abundant reserves of oil and most other valuable minerals.

Highlights of Kazakhstan:

1. Almaty - the biggest city in Kazakhstan and the most European city in Asia
2. Nur-Sultan - the extravagant capital
3. Köl-Say Lakes
4. The modern buildings of Astana; a contrast to most of the rest of Kazakhstan
5. Endless **desert and steppe** in much of the country
6. The Altai mountains in eastern Kazakhstan, and other mountain chains along the southern border.
7. Charyn Canyon, similar formation as Grand Canyon
8. Nur Astana Mosque - the third biggest mosque in Central Asia
9. Aral Sea
10. Russian town of Baikonur
11. Nuclear weapon testing areas

https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Kazakhstan

National anthem

Useful apps in Kazakhstan

1. 2GIS - equivalent of Google Maps, but works better / is more updated than Google Maps (user interface can be changed to English)
2. Yandex Go - taxi and delivery - similar or equivalent of Uber, very popular in Kazakhstan and Russia (user infeface can be changed to English) - you can link card or pay by cash (bare in mind that taxi drivers may not have change)
3. WhatsUpp - the most popular messaging app in Kazakhstan (that relies on the Internet connection), used privately and by busineses - similar to WeeChat, Cacao Talk, or similar
4. Astana Bus - buses in NurSultan (former Astana)
5. City Bus Almaty  - buses in Almaty
6. Google Translate App - instead of browser, especially if you don't know / can't write Cyrillic, as you can make a photo and app will translate if from the photo
7. Food delivery apps: Glovo , Wolt , and Yandex Eats - user interface can be changed to English, however, food choices will be probably written in Russian or Kazakh, but many food choices will have photos. Food delivery will most likely call you and their English level may vary
8. Instagram - very popular for businesses in Kazakhstan, so many restaurants will have their Instagram account with menu and photos, you can also contact restaurant via Instagram
9. In Driver- taxi servises, however most of the exchange will not be in English, it will be probably only in Russian or Kazakh - very useful for travels between the cities. Be prepared to propose amount of money per person that you are willing to pay for required travel - you need to put from where to where, for how much (per person), and how many people, then they will call you, you can ask for WhatsUpp messages instead if you are struggling with language. Alternatively you acn look up for advertisements and call them.