Asia
Kazakhstan
Everything you need to know about Kazakhstan for geography games and satellite imagery — capital, population, time zone, and how to recognise it from above.
Quick facts
How to spot Kazakhstan from satellite imagery
Kazakhstan is the ninth-largest country on Earth by area at 2.72 million square kilometres — slightly larger than Argentina, slightly smaller than India, and comparable in size to all of western Europe. Despite this size, the population is just under 20 million, making Kazakhstan one of the most sparsely populated large countries on the planet. The country covers most of the Eurasian steppe between Russia to the north, China to the east, the Caspian Sea to the west, and the four Central Asian -stans (Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and a tiny border with Tajikistan) to the south.
For geography games, Kazakhstan is one of the more challenging countries to identify because its landscapes can look similar to those of southern Russia, Mongolia, or neighbouring Central Asian states. But the country has distinctive aerial signatures that lock it in once you know what to look for. This guide walks through them.
Read the full satellite guideCan you find Kazakhstan from above?
Test your geography skills on a 3D globe and see how often you place this country correctly.