Kyrgyzstan travel
The arms of Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyz Republic, commonly referred to as Kyrgyzstan, became an independent country on 31 August 1991. The head of state is President (since independence, the president of Kyrgyzstan has been Askar Akaev).
Kyrgyzstan is a landlocked, largely mountainous country in Central Asia bounded on the east by China, on the north by Kazakstan, on the west by Uzbekistan and on the southwest and south by Tajikistan. From north to south, Kyrgyzstan measures 425 kilometers; from west to east, it measures 900 kilometers.
Kyrgyzstan shares borders with Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, China, Tajikistan. Its northern latitude is 43°16' close to Rome's; its southern latitude is 39°11', near Sicily's in Italy.
Kyrgyzstan has an area of 1,999,000 square kilometers, more than the territory of Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland combined. The total population is approximately 4,700,000 people with majority of Kyrgyz, Russian, and Uzbek. In Kyrgyzstan there are about 80 ethnic group some of them like the Tatars, Dunghan, Uighur, and Tajik counting approximately 1% each of the total population.
Flag of Kyrgyzstan
The main religion in Kyrgyzstan is Islam. Capital of Kyrgyzstan is Bishkek. Bishkek is the biggest city and alone represent about 20% of the total population of the country. About 90% of Kyrgyzstan is 1000 meters above sea level. The highest point in the country is Pobeda Peak (meaning Victory Peak in Russian) at 7439 meters. The lowest point is at the western end of Naryn River, about 500 meters. Lying close to the middle of the country is the Fergana Valley a fertile breadbasket area whose boundaries, set by preceding Soviet authorities, are a source of incessant conflict between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
Kyrgyzstan has sharply continental climate, with hot summers and moderately cold winters. In summer, areas from 800 to 1700 meters see average temperatures of 26–30°C, winter temperatures in the lowlands average -5°C. The country has 1,923 mountain lakes and about 40,000 streams and rivers. However, only 7% of the land is arable, of which 68% is irrigated. Kyrgyzstan's three major rivers are the Naryn (also the longest at 535 kilometers), Chu (221 kilometers) and Chatkal (205 kilometers).
Issyk-Kul – the largest (6332 km2) and deepest (702 m) lake in the country, never freezes due to its sufficiently saline content. Two other major lakes are Song-Kul (area: 275 km2, depth: 13.2 m) and Chatyr-Kul (area: 153.5 km2, depth: 16.5 m), both in Naryn Oblast. Sary-CheIek, whose pretty water and surroundings are depicted in many tourist posters, is nestled in the mountains of the northwestern part of Dzhalal-Abad Oblast.
The industrial sector is dominated by mining and metallurgy, which are two of the main contributors to GDP. Gold mining and refining is by far the most important activity in the mining sector. Kyrgyzstan has more than 400 deposits of precious and semi-precious stones. In addition 44 kinds of gem quality stones have been recently identified. These deposits include diamonds, sapphires, rubies, emeralds and topaz as well as aquamarine, amethyst, turquoise, rock crystal, nephrite, malachite, jasper and agate. Reserves of coal are estimated at 2.9 billion tonnes in four major coal basins. There are ideal conditions in Kyrgyzstan for the manufacture of polycrystalline silicon. The wool, cotton and silk industries are dominated by a number of large enterprises in the industrial centres, typically employing thousands of workers each.
Osh is the centre of an administrative region of Kyrgyzstan. It is also considered as the southern capital of republic.
A few years ago, on the Sulaiman mountain in the centre of Osh, archeologists from Leningrad showing a high level of land culture and handcrafts found in the city’s eastern part the remains of a fortress, dating back to the time of Alexander the Great. This means that Osh is older than Rome. It is three thousands years old. The earliest written information to the city’s history is in 9th century B.C. Arabic writings.
In the 12th century Osh became one of the religious centers of the Fergana valley. The legend says: the city was settled by the prophet Sulaiman Solomon and the mountain in the centre of the town has his name later, on the top of a mountain there is a house which was built by Zahir Ud-Din Muhammad Babur (1483-1530) the founder of the great Mogul state, a poet and thinker, here he wrote his rubaiyats and the book of life.
The ancient ruins are only a five minutes walk from the city modern housing districts. The area of the Sulaiman mountain is one of the busiest and most interesting places of the city. There is an archeological museum in caves of a mountain.
Also Osh city is famous with it’s Oriental Bazaar, it is the place where you can find everything, here you can meet people of different nationalities.
Alay region is formed in 1936. It is situated in the south east part of Kyrgyzstan Republic. Gulcho is the centre of Alay. The territory of Alay region borders with Tajikistan and China.
As for the Chon-Alay it became independent from Alay region in 1990. Now it is a separate region. The population of Chon-Alay is 26 thousands of people. It consists of three administrative districts: Chon-Alay, Kashka-Suu and Jekendi.
Nature. In the northern part of a region there are steppes, meadows and grasslands. In narrow ravines and canyons there are many bushes, dog-roses, barberries. There are many rivers as Gulcho, Kok-Suu, Ak-Suu, Kashka-Suu, etc. On the banks of the rivers grow many sea buck thorns, willow, poplar, birch-tree and so on. As for the animals there live such animals as hedgehog, hare, gopher, badger, polecat, fox. Rivers rich with fishes.
In the northern part of Alay region there are two mountain ranges Alay range and Chon-Alay range. In Chon-Alay range there is Lenin Peak. Lenin Peak is the highest top in this range. The height of the Lenin Peak is 7134 m. By the height this peak takes the third place in former USSR territory. The height of snow cower of the northern part is 4200 m and the southern part is 4500 m the largest ice-houses (ice-boxes US) are called: Korjenevskiy 19.5 km length, Lenin 9.5 km length, Kaman 8.1 km length. The length of large canyon is 25 km and the small canyon is 13 km. The mountain climbers V. Abalakov, K. Chernuha, I. Lukin were the first who climbed up the top of the mountain in 1934.
