A regional division inherited from the USSR
Like all the former Soviet socialist republics of Central Asia, Kazakhstan, once a land of nomads, has retained the administrative division drawn up by Moscow, which divides the country into 14 oblasts, or regions. The vastness of the country is reflected in the size of some regions, such as Karaganda, south-east of Astana, which alone covers almost 500,000 km2, the size of France without the Grand Est region. During the Soviet era, this region was home to one of the largest gulags in the USSR.
Apart from these regions, three cities have regional status in their own right: Almaty and Astana, the country's former and new capital respectively, and Baikonur, in the heart of the steppe, home to the Russian cosmodrome, which is jointly managed by the Russian and Kazakh presidents.
The infinite steppe
From the Altai Mountains in the east of the country to the northern shores of the Caspian Sea, the steppe occupies more than 80% of Kazakhstan's territory, or 2.3 million km2: a little more than four times the size of mainland France! It's an often monotonous territory, devoid of relief and tall vegetation, and where the climate is mostly hostile: hot and dry in summer, icy and snowy in winter. There are very few settlements, and the population density is the lowest, averaging just under 3 inhabitants per km2. The only real town in the area is the Baikonur cosmodrome, deliberately set deep in the desert moor.
A river system under stress
The Kazakh steppe is not as dry as it first appears. And the country benefits from natural water resources throughout its territory, fed by the snows of the Altai and Ala Tau mountains. Nevertheless, catastrophic water management during the Soviet era, notably the detour of rivers to irrigate cotton fields, had dramatic repercussions on the country's hydrographic system. The Syr Darya, which rises in Kyrgyzstan, flows for the most part through Kazakhstan, for over 2,000 km. But the many withdrawals made along its course have gradually choked its flow, while considerably increasing the level of pollutants, notably uranium, in what remains of its waters. Four rivers, the Ural, Ishim, Irtysh and Ili, irrigate the north of the country as they flow towards the Caspian Sea. But here again, the picture is far from rosy. The construction of the new capital, Astana, has been very water-intensive, and the exponential growth in population has rapidly and greatly exceeded the capacity of the pumping stations, resulting in numerous water cuts for the population and sometimes depriving them of access to drinking water. The country's low rainfall, three times lower than the world average, and the reduction in snow cover and glaciers due to global warming, are leading to a dramatic decline in these watercourses, while at the other end of the chain, excessive consumption due to the needs of an ever-growing population could lead to major shortages in the coming years. The only safety valve: lakes.
The country has over 17,000 of them, covering an area of 1.5% of its territory. North of Almaty, Lake Balkach, with its 18,200 km2, is the largest lake in Central Asia, and has the particularity of being salty in its eastern part, whereas the water is fresh on the western side. It is extended by lakes Sassy kul and Ala kul, towards the Chinese border. These two lakes are linked by a vast marshy area that is ideal for bird nesting, particularly for rare species, and which led to them being classified as a Ramsar site in 2009 as a "wetland of international importance".
Two seas for one country
Kazakhstan has two inland seas: the Aral Sea at Aralsk, and the Caspian Sea between Aktau and Atyrau. These two inland seas are reminiscent of an ocean that once covered the entire Aral-Caspian depression. While the former has all but disappeared over the course of the 20th century, the Caspian remains the world's largest inland sea, covering 385,000 km2. Its shores are shared by Kazakhstan, Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkmenistan. The Caspian is a significant source of wealth for Kazakhstan, between hydrocarbons and caviar.
The picture is bleaker for the Aral Sea: in the 1960s, with its 66,000 km2, it was still the world's fourth largest expanse of continental salt water. By 1990, due to massive irrigation for cotton monoculture, the level had dropped by some fifteen meters. After splitting in two, the southern part almost disappeared, while the construction of a dyke on the Kazakh side raised the level of what is now known as "Little Aral".
A solidly guarded border
The Kazakh mountains are concentrated in the northeast with the Altai range, and in the southeast on the borders with China and Kyrgyzstan. The Altai mountain range stretches over 2,000 km between China, Kazakhstan and Russia, with many peaks over 4,000 m high serving as border markers. Glaciers feed a dense hydrographic network, including rivers such as the Irtysh, which flows through Kazakhstan. The difficult access to this area has enabled its flora and fauna to be much better preserved than elsewhere. It is home to many species on the brink of extinction elsewhere, most notably the snow leopard, of which only 3,000 remain in the world. 700 still live in the Altai Mountains.
To the south-east, in the Almaty region, the Ala-tau range marks the Sino-Kazakh border and extends into the Karatau Mountains, south of the former capital. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, this medium-altitude massif borders the north bank of the Syr Darya.
Finally, Kazakhstan is home to a small part of the Tian Shan range, notably around Khan Tengri, the country's highest point at 7,010 m, which marks the point of intersection between the Kyrgyz, Kazakh and Chinese borders.
