Kazakhstan (all images)

Kazakhstan is the largest of the Central Asian countries, bordering the Russian Federation to the north, China to the east and three of the other Central Asian republics to the south. With just 16 million inhabitants, Kazakhstan is very lightly populated. The territory consists mostly of plain with some mountains in south and east. Due to its extensive hydrocarbon deposits, Kazakhstan is the wealthiest and most developed of the Central Asian countries. 64% of the population are ethnic Kazakhs, 23% ethnic Russians and the remainder other minorities. The country does not have much in terms of tourist infrastructure and only few tourists visit Kazakhstan. The capital of Kazakhstan is Astana.