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Ural
Ural , river, c.1,580 mi (2,540 km) long, rising in the S Urals, flowing through Russia and Kazakhstan. Part of the traditional boundary between Europe and Asia, the Ural flows S past Magnitogorsk and Orenburg, then through NW Kazakhstan, past Oral, and into the Caspian Sea at Atyrau. At Magnitogors...
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Ili
Ili or Ile , river of China and Kazakhstan, 590 mi (950 km) long, rising in the Tian Shan, NW Xinjiang, and flowing W across the China-Kazakhstan border, through the sandy Sary Ishikotrau Desert and into Lake Balkash. Yining (Kuldja), in Xinjiang, is the largest city on the river. The Ili is use...
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Oral
Oral , formerly Uralsk , city (1989 pop. 199,835), NW Kazakhstan, on the Ural River. Among its industries are the repair of agricultural equipment, grain processing, and tanning. It was founded as Uralsk in 1622 by the Ural Cossacks, who fought with Stenka Razin in the uprising of 1667 and agains...
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Almaty
Almaty , formerly Alma-Ata , city (1993 pop. 1,176,000), capital of Almaty prov., Kazakhstan, in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau. A terminus of the Turkistan-Siberia RR, Almaty is the industrial, financial, and cultural center of Kazakhstan and was for many years its capital; in 1997 the ca...
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Astana
Astana , formerly Aqmola or Akmola , city (1993 est. pop. 287,000), capital of Kazakhstan and Aqmola prov., in central Kazakhstan on the Ishim (Esil) River. Agricultural machinery and consumer goods are manufactured; there are also leather-tanning, food-processing, clothing and footwear, and ...
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Tacheng
Tacheng or Chuguchak , town (1994 est. pop. 56,400), N Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, in the Dzungarian basin, bordering on Kazakhstan. Long a major center for trade with Central Asia, it is an agricultural hub. Its industries include food processing, textiles, and utilities. The town ...
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Baikonur Cosmodrome
Baikonur Cosmodrome , formerly secret aerospace launch complex, Qyzylorda prov., S central Kazakhstan, near Leninsk (now Baikonur) but c.200 mi (320 km) SW of the mining town of Baikonur, whose name it was given to mislead the curious. The first facilities were built in the mid-1950s and served as t...
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Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan or Kazakstan , officially Republic of Kazakhstan, republic (2005 est. pop. 15,186,000), c.1,050,000 sq mi (2,719,500 sq km), central Asia. It borders on Siberian Russia in the north, China in the east, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan in the south, and the Caspian Sea and Euro...
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Kara Kum
Kara Kum , two deserts, one in Kazakhstan and one in Turkmenistan. The Caspian Kara Kum or Garagum, the larger desert (c.115,000 sq mi/297,900 sq km), is W of the Amu Darya River and includes most of Turkmenistan. The Murghab and Tejen rivers flow out of the Hindu Kush Mts. to the south and empty in...
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Syr Darya
Syr Darya or Syrdarya , ancient Jaxartes or Yaxartes, Pers. Sihun, river, c.1,380 mi (2,220 km) long, flowing through Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. One of the principal rivers of central Asia, it is formed in the Fergana Valley , E Uzbekistan, by the junction of the Naryn and Ka...
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