Q 01/05

What is the capital of Kazakhstan?

A) Karaganda

B) Almaty

C) Astana

D) Shymkent

Answer · why

C) Astana

Astana simply means "capital" in Kazakh: the steppe town of Akmola took the name in 1998, months after the government moved in, and Japanese architect...

Q 02/05

Which city was Kazakhstan's capital until 1997 and remains its largest?

A) Aktobe

B) Astana

C) Taraz

D) Almaty

Answer · why

D) Almaty

Almaty, known as Verny under the tsars, was all but destroyed by earthquakes in 1887 and again in 1911 and was rebuilt each time on the same spot belo...

Q 03/05

The shanyrak at the centre of Kazakhstan's national emblem is which part of a yurt?

A) The roof ring

B) The door frame

C) The lattice wall

D) The central hearth

Answer · why

A) The roof ring

The roof ring was the one part that outlasted the rest: a yurt might be repaired and rebuilt many times, but its wooden crown passed from father to so...

Q 04/05

Kazakhstan, the world's largest landlocked country, keeps a navy on which sea?

A) Caspian Sea

B) Aral Sea

C) Black Sea

D) Baltic Sea

Answer · why

A) Caspian Sea

The Caspian Sea has no outlet to the ocean, so the world's ninth-largest country still counts as landlocked despite its long shore there; the small fl...

Q 05/05

Kazakhstan and which other country are the only landlocked states usually counted as spanning two continents?

A) Mongolia

B) Turkey

C) Azerbaijan

D) Uzbekistan

Answer · why

C) Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan has a few districts north of the Greater Caucasus watershed, just as Kazakhstan's far west lies beyond the Ural River, and both lines are t...