Kazakhstan's West

In the west, much of Kazakstan is desert or semi-desert. It includes the second-lowest area in the world, far below sea-level. As in this photo, water is not common. For persons who like the deserts in Arizona, this would be the best part of the country.

Ironically, much of the western border is along the Caspian Sea, and half of the Aral Sea is in western Kazakhstan. But between the two lies some of the most desolate regions in Asia.

  Due to over-use of the two rivers flowing into the Aral Sea, that body of water is now much smaller than even 50 years ago - an ecological disaster without equal. One result is that the lands east of the sea are becoming even less hospitable - salt deposited as the sea re-treated is carried eastward, making formerly fertile lands along the Syr Darya increasingly less productive.
  But not all of western Kazakhstan is desert. Sedentary agriculture has existed along the Syr Darya for centuries, allowing the development of trading routes, cities and empires. The present national borders in Central Asia were fixed by the U.S.S.R. government. They have little, if any, rela-tionship to historical borders or areas traditionally inhabited by particular ethnic groups. Of course, over 2,000-plus years of history, borders were never stable for long periods, in large part due to invaders from east and west. Central Asia (or large parts of it) have at times been subject to rule from China, and from Greece (Alexander the Great was here), and from Persia, and from Mongolia, and, more recently, from Moscow.
  To the southwest of Kazakhstan is Uzbekistan, Turkistan, Iran. From that direction Islamic civilization spread into Central Asia - including Kazakhstan. While Western Europe was in its "Dark Ages," Central Asia was the center of Islamic learning and culture.

This edifice in south-central Kazakhstan was started by the emperor Tamerlane ("Timur the Lame") as a mausoleum for one of the most famous intellectuals/artists of 1,000 years ago. It was not finished because Tamerlane died and his successors were not so enthusiastic about monuments.