In the Heart of Eurasia

      The Republic of Kazakhstan is the largest government located in the Northern hemisphere at the interface of two continents Europe and Asia. According to the area Kazakhstan takes the ninth place after Russia, China, the USA, Argentina, Brasilia, Canada, India and Austria. Kazakhstan is on the border of such governments as Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

      Kazakhstan is unitary state with presidential regime stating itself as democratic, urban, legal and social government the highest value of which is human, his life, rights and freedom.

      Government authority of Kazakhstan is unified and it includes legislative branch performed by the Parliament, executive branch performed by the Government composed of central and local bodies as well as judicial branch performed by governmental courts. The single source of governmental authority is people.

      Efforts of Kazakhstan in the sphere of disarmament and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons shall be indicated as one of the largest initiatives of foreign policy of Kazakhstan.

      Kazakhstan is the first country that voluntary gave up on nuclear weapons. On August 29, 1991 the President Nursultan Nazarbaev issued order to close the second largest Semipalatinsk base. Kazakhstan confirmed its choice of a nuclear weapons free world refusing voluntary from the fourth nuclear-missile arsenals in the world and all these years Kazakhstan was devoted to the principles of non-proliferation. In initiative of Kazakhstan, August 29 was accepted by the UN General Assembly as the International Day of activity against nuclear tests.
From January 1, 2010 Kazakhstan is the current Chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
      The capital of Kazakhstan is Astana City.

 

      The significant part of territory of Kazakhstan is flat land surrounded by mountains in the South-East and East. On the border of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan height of mountains can reach 5000 m under sea level. The North of the country is the South of the West Siberian Plain, center includes Kazakh hummocky topography and In the South-East and Esat there is Altay, Tien Shan and Tarbagatay mountains.

      Territory of Kazakhstan is at the interface of two oldest cultures – Nomadic and Settled cultures that cohabited changing the best cultural achievements. This land includes different cultural, nonmaterial and historical memorials of different nations and a few countries can be compared with Kazakhstan in the sphere of wealth and variety of historical evidences of atint and modern civilizations.

      At the present days historical-cultural heritage of Kazakhstan includes more than 35 thousand monuments of history, archeology, monumental art and architecture. Two uncial monuments Mausoleum Hodzha Ahmed Yassaui and archeological complex Tamgaly are included in the List of International Heritage UNESCO. The following significant site nominated in the List is the ancient city Otrar. Great part of the Silk Way is within territory of Kazakhstan. Additionally Kazakhstan is not only museum in the open area but it is country with beautiful natural sights like legendary the Burabay Lake, alpine meadows of Zailiyskiy Alatau, majestic canyons of the Charyn River.

      Climate of the country is extremely continental. Average temperature of January is within -19 and – 4 degrees Celsius, average temperature of July is from +19 to +26 degrees Celsius. The lowest temperature in winter is – 45 C and the highest temperature in summer is +30C.

      The Republic of Kazakhstan has unique and rich biological and landscape variety. Its natural zones include landscape variety from the North deserts to alpine meadows and permanent snow.

      Kazakhstan has 8.5 thousand of large and small rivers. The largest rivers of Kazakhstan are Ural and Emba run into the Caspian Sea as well as the Syr-Darya River run into the Aral Sea. The Irtysh, Ishym, Tobol Rivers cross over the Republic and run into the Arctic Ocean.

      Kazakhstan has 48 000 large and small lakes. Among them the largest ones are the Aral Sea, Balkhash Lake, Zaisan Lake, Tengiz Lake, Seletengiz Lake. Kazakhstan includes the greatest part of coast of the Caspian Sea that is the largest lake of the planet.

      The animal world of Kazakhstan is significant too. Persian gazelles and koulans can be observed in plain as well as snow leopards on the mountain heights. Snow leopard is the national symbol of Kazakhstan. In Kazakhstan people always respect leopards as strong and proud animal. Beautiful wild cat is ideal rock climber and its live environment is mountain peak where ice-flows are on the border of alpine line. Snow leopard is talisman of following Asia Games VII-2011 taking place at Almaty and Atsana on January 2011.

      Fauna of Kazakhstan includes marmot, lynx, Tien Shan brown bears, Usuriysk wild sheeps, swan and flamingo. Variety of plant kingdom of the country includes 5754types of higher plants. There are 10 reservations, 8 national parks, 2 nature reserves and 3 nature parks.

      Talking about Kazakhstan we shall mention on large mineral wealth. There are a lot of mineral resources about 6000 fields. Mineral wealth includes 99 elements of the Mendeleev Table. The country is in the top ten of countries concerning to oil resources, it takes the second place concerning to uranium fields and the sixth in comparison of gold resources.

      Population of Kazakhstan consists of 15 million people and 130 ethnic groups having its cultural, language and historical specificity. The most ethnic groups include Kazakh, Russian, Ukrainian, Uzbek, German, etc.

      Kazakhstan is polyconfessional country where there are more than 3000 religious unions representing 40 confessions having more than 2500 cultic constructions. The most widespread religious of Kazakhstan is Sunni Islam. The Republic includes about 9 million people of 24 nationalities worshiping Islam. The Russian Orthodox Church is on the second place in accordance with number of believers. The Orthodoxy is worshiped by about 30 present of believers in Kazakhstan.

      Government language of Kazakhstan is Kazakh referred to group of Turkic languages. Russian is used in government bodies and self-governing authorities on the equal basis with Kazakh. Every person has the right to talk in native language and to choice language for communication, education and work.

      Kazakh are warmly welcoming people. Respect to guests and elder people, peacefulness and tolerance sense childhood are basic national feature of Kazakh therefore international and religious conflicts are not observed in Kazakhstan.

      About 60% of Kazakhstan is urban. It is the most urban Republic in the Central Asia. The most populated city is Almaty. In Almaty there are about 1.5 million people. Almaty is the most beautiful city of Kazakhstan located at the bottom of Zailiyskiy Alatau that is range of Tien Shan. In Almaty precincts there is high mountain rink Medeu where 120 records of the worls referred to skating and sport base Chembulak with specifications equal to similar Europe routes.