Kazakhstan Landmarks That You Can't Miss

Kazakhstan is a country located right in the heart of Eurasia. It's kind of sandwiched between the two world powers as Russia and China. It also borders three other "Stans" of Central Asia: Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and moreover shares a common soviet "Russian" history with them.

It's size by area makes Kazakhstan the ninth largest country in the world and therefore it naturally is the ideal hub for diverse landscape that starts as lowlands in the west (130 meters or about 430 ft below sea level) and ends by a 7 000 meters (approx. 23000 ft) peak in the south east, called Khan Tengri.

Like many other Kazakhstan landmarks, Khan Tengri is located near Almaty, the major city and former capital of Kazakhstan. It is the most northerly "seven-thousander" as they call in the mountaineering circles. It's a marble rock, shaped like a pyramid. Its correct geometrical shape beautifully reflects the sun in different colours depending on the time of the day. Thus for its sunset red colour it was named the "Kan Tau" ("kan" - blood, and "tau" - mountain) among the Kazakh nomad tribes.

Another one of many Kazakhstan landmarks is the Charyn Canyon. Some call it as the "Grand Canyon" of Kazakhstan or the "little kazakh brother of the Grand Canyon". Although it reminds a smaller version of the famous Colorado landmark, it still has its own beauty and features quite different from its American brother.

The Charyn Canyon is situated about 200 km east of Almaty. It stretches 154 km alongside the Charyn River. The most popular part is called the Valley of Castles for the unusually shaped formations resembling the ancient fortresses. Don't miss the Singing Dunes when you are in Kazakhstan. It's only about 180 km away from Almaty. It's a 3 km sand ridge that produces various notes if the right dry weather conditions are provided.

The Aral Sea is definitely a "can't miss" landmark, especially if you are looking over Kazakhstan on the Google Satellite Map. It's the landmark who has gained a bad reputation due to the incorrect human activities. Once among the first five largest lakes of the world, the Aral Sea lost 90% of its volume within a few decades of incorrect usage of the sea waters to artificially feed the rice and cotton fields.

Kazakhstan wouldn't accept the irreversible fate of the sea and is taking all the possible measures to bring it back to life. landmark If you compare the satellite images of the Aral Sea for the last few years, you can see a significant difference that the measures have made.

One other famous Kazakhstan landmark is the Cosmodrome Baikonur. It's the first and largest space launch site in the world. It was built in 1950's when Kazakhstan was still part of the USSR. Originally it was built for long-range missile centre. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, it still is being used by the Russian Federation under the lease agreement.

Kazakhstan is a country of contrasts in many meanings, either geographically, historically or economically. It's the country in the crossroads of two different cultures of Europe and Asia. It represents both the old and the modern lifestyles. It's within Central Asia, the region that is less travelled.