Central Asia

Central Asia extends from the Caspian Sea in the west to the border of western China in the East. It is colloquially referred to as “the-stans” as the countries generally considered to be within the region all have names ending with the Persian suffix “-stan”, meaning “land of”.  The region consists of the five former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan in the north, Kyrgyzstan in the northeast, Tajikistan in the southeast, Turkmenistan in the southwest,   Uzbekistan located in the lower region of the Amu-Darya River (Oxus in Greek). Uzbekistan covers the central area between the two biggest central Asian rivers the Sir-Darya and Amu-Darya.

Countries