Country information

Geography: The Kyrgyz Republic is situated in the north-eastern part of Central Asia.  It borders with Uzbekistan in the west (the length of the boundaries equals to 1,099 km.), with Kazakhstan in the north (1,051 km), with Tajikistan in the south (870 km) and with China in the east (858 km). The total length of all boundaries is 3,878 km. Total area is 198.500 sq km. In the south-west of the country lies the Pamir-Alai mountain range and in the north-east –  the Tian-Shan range, home to the the Pobeda peak (7439 m) – the highest point in the country. Mountain ranges are separated by high mountain valleys and basins: in the north Chui and Talas, in the south-west Fergana, in the south – Alai.

Kyrgyzstan is a landlocked mountainous country with a large variety of landscapes, flora and fauna.

There are about 1923 lakes in Kyrgyzstan with the total water surface area of 6836 sq km. The main river is the Naryn River. The largest lake of the country is lake Issyk-Kul.

Population: Population is about 5,000,000 people. Kyrgyz people compose more than half of the population (64.9%), Uzbeks – 13.8%, Russians – 12.5%, the rest are Ukrainians, Tatars, Germans, Kazakhs, Uigurs, Tajiks, Turks, and Dungans.

Language: State language is Kyrgyz; Russian has the status of an official language.

Climate: Hot summers, quite cold winters (more in mountains), large contrasts of seasonal and round-the-clock temperatures and very mixed precipitations. The warmest place in the country is the Fergana Valley, the average July temperature in Bishkek is 40 C. January average temperature is 15 C (warmer in Valleys, in mountains up to – 28 C). There is a lot of snow in the mountains in winter and a lot of precipitation in the western part of the country. In winter it can reach up to 1,500 mm a year, in the high altitude regions of Tian-Shan up to 200-400 mm, predominantly in summer.

Flora: The allocation of flora has a very distinct high zoning and spreads to the height of 4500 m. Bushes of saxaul in desert zones are replaced with deciduous forests and bushes in valleys and foothills. Coniferous forests of unique blue Tian-Shan fir prevail in the higher mountainous parts of up to 2500 m. Above that spread alpine meadows with colorful grasses and bright flowers. Here you may also see fields of edelweiss. Even higher is a land of mosses and lichens with rare bushes and tender flowers.

Fauna: You will have an opportunity to see a diverse animal world: from smallest rodents and birds to biggest mountain inhabitants such as carrion-crows and mountain goats. Here, in a desolated area of high mountains also lives the snow leopard – the symbol of Kyrgyzstan.