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Physical Setting:
Covering an area of over 1.5 million sq. miles (nearly 4,000 sq. km) the Central Asian nations impinge on the frontiers of Iran, Afghanistan, China and Mongolia, and before 1991 formed the southernmost part of the USSR. Tucked in the middle of the world’s largest continent and remote from the open waters of the world’s great oceans, the region lies at the historic crossroads between Europe and Asia, and was subjected to repeated conquests from outside and contained little political integration from within.
Kazakhstan is the largest among the Central Asian nations, possessing a territory larger than all other Central Asian republics combined. A third of its vast expanse consists of lowlands stretching from the Kirghiz Steppe lands in the north, and flat, Caspian-Aral Depressions in the west to hilly plateaus towards the east, and high mountains along China-Krygyz borders in the southeast where the highest points of over 20,000 feet (6250 meters) are reached.
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The western and southwestern parts of the republics are dominated by the low-lying Caspian Depression, south of which (and west of the Aral Sea) lies the Ustyurt Plateau. The world’s largest inland body of water, the Caspian makes Kazakhstan’s border for 1,450 miles, 2,345 km). Other large bodies of water include Lake Balkhash in the eastern part of the country and the shrinking Aral Sea.
The Aral Sea is heavily contaminated by the salty dust and chemical deposits. The entire area around it is in terrible environmental decay. The northern part of the country faces Russia, and is drained by Irtysh, Ishim, and Tobol rivers which run northwards, draining to the Arctic waters. In the west the Ural River flows into the Caspian Sea.
In the southern section of Kazakhstan the waters of the Syr Darya flow into the Aral Sea. In the extreme northeast, are the Tarbagatay and the Alatau ranges. The Tien Shan rises along the Kyrgyzstan border. The largely mountainous republics of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan border China, and contain the highest peaks in Central Asia: Victory Peak at 24,406 feet (7,439 meters), Lenin Peak at 23,405 feet (7,134 meters) and Communism Peak at 24,590 feet (7,495 meters) in the Tien Shan and the Pamir Mountain systems. In the southwestern part of the Tien Shan is the fertile Valley of Fergana and Lake Issyk-Kul.
Though less than 10 percent of Tajikistan and a large portion of Kyrgyzstan are lowlands, the fertile and productive valleys such as Fergana, Vaksh and Pauj are important for the human geography of these mountainous nations. The upper courses of Central Asia’s two major rivers—the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya—drain these two republics. The entire area is prone to seismic activity occasionally frequented by severe earthquakes.
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Eighty percent of the territory of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan consists of two desert lowlands: the Kyzyl Kum in Uzbekistan and the Kara Kum in Turkmenistan. Both rank among the world’s largest sand deserts. Southeast of the Aral Sea, small hills break the flatness of the Kyzyl Kum Desert in Uzbekistan whereas the western ranges of the Tien Shan Mountains spill over the eastern part of Uzbekistan rise to nearly 14,500 feet (4,300 meters). Between the mountain ranges, the heavily populated oases contain an extensive network of canals.
The two historic rivers—the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya—that drain the two republics of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have been depleted during the past several decades due to overuse in both agriculture and industry. As most of the waters in the delta of the Amu River and the lower course of the Syr River have dried up, the Aral Sea has been shrinking. In some places the shoreline has receded more than 75 miles (120 km).
All this has created problems of salinization of the Aral. The pollution from the overuse of insecticide, and chemical fertilization for irrigation, the Syr and the Amu basins have further contaminated wide areas and have had disastrous effects on the environment and on the health and livelihood of the human population around the Aral littoral. The Kopet Mountains lie along the Turkmenistan-Iran border.