Until the break-up of the Soviet Union in December 1991, few people could have found Kazakhstan on the map. Even after independence, many do not realise that this central Asian nation is the ninth largest country on Earth – larger than Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Indonesia, and more than 11 times bigger than the UK.
Kazakhstan is also the world’s largest landlocked country, sandwiched between Russia in the north, China to the east, and the former Soviet republics of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to the south. As a result, it has a classic continental climate: with very cold winters and very warm summers.
Typical January temperatures are about 10-20 degrees below freezing, but can fall as low as -45C; while in July they often rise to well above 30C. In the far south-west, on the borders of the Caspian Sea, winters are far milder.
However, rainfall across much of the country is very low – in some places about 120mm (below 5in) a year, so the winters are usually dry and sunny and the summers not too humid. The north of the country is colder than the south; spring and autumn are quite brief but usually have very pleasant weather, so April to June and September to October are by far the best times to visit.
