Kazakhstan, a Central Asian country and former Soviet republic, extends from the Caspian Sea in the west to the Altai Mountains at its eastern border with China and Russia. Its largest metropolis, Almaty, is a long-standing trading hub whose landmarks include Ascension Cathedral, a tsarist-era Russian Orthodox church, and the Central State Museum of Kazakhstan, displaying thousands of Kazak artifacts.
Capital: Astana
Population: 17.04 million (2013)World Bank
Currency: Kazakhstani tenge
President: Nursultan Nazarbayev
Prime minister: Karim Massimov
Neighboring countries: Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan
