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National anthem of Kazakhstan
he REAL national anthem of the republic of Kazakhstan, not some BS. This anthem was adopted on January 7, 2006. I am not from KZ, but I lived there for 10 years and I really love that country for the beauty of its nature and the tolerance and hospitality of its people.
Algha, Qazaqstan,tek ghana Algha!
Lyrics:
Altyn kun aspany,
Altyn dan dalasy,
Erliktyn dastany -
Elime qarashy!
Ezhelden er degen,
Danqymyz shyqty ghoy,
Namysyn bermegen,
Qazaghym myqty ghoy!
Chorus:
Menyn elim, menyn elim,
Gulin bolyp egylemyn,
Zhıryn bolyp togilemyn, elim!
Tughan zherim menin — Qazaqstanym!
Urpaqqa zhol ashqan,
Ken baytaq zherym bar.
Birligy zharasqan,
Tauelsyz elim bar.
Qarsy alghan uaqytty,
Mangilik dosynday.
Bizdyn el baqytty,
Bizdyn el osynday!
Chorus x2
Translation:
Golden sun in heaven,
Golden corn in steppe,
Legend of courage -
It is my land.
In hoary antiquity
Our glory was born,
Proud and strong
Is my Kazakh people
Chorus:
My country, my country,
As your flower I'll grow,
As your song I'll stream, country!
My native land — Kazakhstan!
I've a boundless expanse
And a way, opened in future.
I have an independent,
United people.
Like an ancient friend
Our happy land,
Our happy people
Is welcoming new time.
Chorus x2
National anthem of Kazakhstan
Get in kazakhstan
Virtually everybody requires a visa in advance for visiting Kazakhstan, and for most the visa application has to be supported by a letter of invitation (although this is technically not required for single-entry tourism or business visas for citizens of most industrialized countries). See the Kazakh Embassy to the US [1] for the details of the day. Once you have your documents lined up, issueing the visa takes 3-5 days and costs from US$25 (single-entry tourist visa) upwards.
All visitors arriving by air and some obtaining their visas in Western countries are preregistered with the Office of Visas and Registration (OVIR), but those who don't fit either category have to tackle this bit of bureaucracy in person at the OVIR offices in Almaty or Astana.
By plane
Air Kazakhstan stopped flying at the end of March 2004. The most important carrier is now Air Astana which flies to Almaty, Astana, Aktau, Aktobe, Atyrau, Uralsk, Dubai, Moscow, Delhi, Beijing, Istanbul, Bangkok, Hannover, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Seoul.
Lufthansa has also seven days flights to Almaty, from where you can go anywhere via local carrier SKAT, which flies to most cities in Kazakhstan. British Airways (Almaty-Heathrow route taken over by bmi from Sept 2007)and KLM now fly several times a week to Heathrow/Schiphol. Turkish airlines is good passenger carrier, with flights to Istanbul (ask a travel agent about the student fares, which can be a great deal). There are twice a week flights from Seoul to Almaty, one is Asiana Air Line and the other is Astana. Airbaltic also flies to Almaty, if you reserve tickets in advance you can go there for 130 euro (from Riga).
By train
Popular routes include Almaty to/from Moscow (77 hours), Novosibirsk (35 hours) and Ürümqi, China.
The trains are a great way to meet people. A lot has been written about the pitfalls of being included in a vodka drinking party on a train, but for the most part fellow travellers are friendly, and keen to find out about you ("why aren't you married?" and if you are "why don't you have children?" and if you do "why don't they have children?"!). Most travellers take food for the journey as restaurant car provision is sporadic (and they expect you to share yours too!). If you don't have enough to last the distance, the trains generally stop for 15-20 mins at each station and there are always people on the platform selling food and drink, at any time of day or night.
By bus
It is fairly easy to travel from Urumqi China to Almaty via sleeper bus, especially if you aren't in a hurry and don't mind living on a bus for a good 24 to 36 hours. The border crossing itself is a bit of a hike, and you may be made to carry all of your belongings with you for quite a ways in some seriously warm weather. The bus trip and "baggage fees" are around 45$ US. You can pick up your Kazakhstan visa at the embassy in Urumqi as well, but be prepared to chill for at least a week waiting, and be sure to get a copy of your passport before handing it over.
By boat
As of 2007, there appear to be no scheduled passenger services across the Caspian. However, a ferry from Baku, Azerbaijan to Aktau, Kazakhstan is reported by some travellers to run once or twice a week across Caspian Sea.
Hitch-hiking
If you are an adventurous and open-minded person, you can travel from Poland to Kazakhstan with one of the trucks of TELS Polska Transportation Company (+48 22 813 45 54 or e-mail sales@telsgroup.pl). They have regular transports.
Get around
Public transportation in big cities is rather popular. You can use buses, trolleys, trams and minibuses. One big minus of all of them is that they never come on schedule and very crowded on peak time. Use taxis as they are very cheap (1-4 euros within city). You don't have to use official taxis, basically you can stop almost any car on the street by raising your hand. Official taxis cost 3-5 times more.
You can travel within country using taxis, buses, trains and planes, it depends on your budget and demands. Renting a car is rather costly compared to other means of transport.
In Semipalatinsk (Semey) a minivan cost 30 tenge, and a large bus cost 15 tenge, common taxi fare was 150 tenge (at the time, June of 2005, USD1 was approximately 120-130 tenge).
A note of warning, getting to the Almaty airport can be expensive, a taxi to the Airport can cost USD50. Taxis to the airport vary greatly in price. Any foreigner will be quoted a fantastic rate but usually cabs will come down once they see they aren't going to be able to get that much. USD50 is outlandish. Do not accept the first price as it will result in your being overcharged. It should be less than USD10, although it can never be guaranteed that a foreigner will get that price. A better option are the minibuses and buses that go to the airport. The word "airport" is very similar in Russian and English.
A common way to get around is by unofficial taxis. Any time of day, just wave your hand and someone will stop. Locals do this all the time. Negotiate the price and destination before you agree to go. About $2-$4 is fair for a ride within the center of Almaty. To be safe though, do not get in a car if more than one person is driving. Also, do not take these kind of taxis for long distances or anywhere that goes through remote areas, as there are frequent robberies- especially of foreigners.
A fun and cheap way to get around is by taking a marshrutka. These are the dilapidated vans that cruise around town. They usually have a sign (in Russian) listing the destination, and the driver will usually call out where they are going.
Republic of Kazakhstan
The Republic of Kazakhstan is situated at the turn of the two continents - Europe and Asia, between the 45th and 87th degrees of longitude East and between the 40th and 55th degrees of latitude North. The geographical center of the European-Asian subcontinent is located in Kazakhstan (at the intersection of the meridian and the 50 parallel) - in the epicenter of the former Semipalatinsk nuclear test grounds. Kazakhstan occupies the territory of 2724.9 thousand square km (1048.3 thousand square miles) and is located to the east of the Caspian Sea and THE Volga's plains of to the mountainous Altay, from the foothills of the Tien-Shan in the South and South-East to the West-Siberian lowlands in the North. The length of its territory from west to east is more than 3,000 km (1,150 miles), from south to north - 1,700 km (650 miles).
Kazakhstan takes the ninth place in the world for its territory, i.е. it is among the ten largest states of the world - after Russia, Canada, China, the USA, Brazil, Australia, India and Argentina. Kazakhstan borders at the east, north and north -east with Russia (length of the borders is 6,477 km), at the south - with countries of Central Asia - Uzbekistan (2,300 km), Kyrgyzstan (980 km) and Turkmenistan (380 km), at the south -east - with China (1,460 km). Total length of Kazakhstan borders is about 12.2 thousand km, including 600 km along the Caspian Sea (at the west).
Today the challenge of global climate change is one of the most urgent world problems, and it is important for all countries of the world community: for industrialized countries - because of the high level of energy use in all sectors of economy, and, consequently, of greenhouse gases emissions into the atmosphere; for countries with transitional economy that are, at first sight, not interested in activities on climate change prevention, but in reality they depend on them; for developing countries, which need to increase production volumes and which face the dilemma- whether they should participate in the global process of greenhouse gases reduction through establishment of their concentration control and introduction of effective technologies and less energy-consuming productions.
A very vulnerable environment characterizes the Republic of Kazakhstan: many types of landscape are presented in the country - from dry subtropics and deserts to mountainous glaciers. Many unique inland water reservoirs are located on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan - seas and lakes the Caspian, Aral, Balhash. Possessing unique stocks of natural resources (oil, gas, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, etc.), Kazakhstan in the times of the USSR was a raw materials appendix of the country, natural resources were often extracted without the regard of the negative impact upon environment and human health. The population of Kazakhstan really felt and continues to feel on themselves and on their health fatal consequences of environmental catastrophes, the reason of which is antropogenic activities. The development of virgin lands resulted in ploughing up of enormous territories of the country, intensive irrational development of irrigable farming in the basins of the rivers Amu Darya and Syr Darya - in the tragedy of the Aral Sea, rise of water level in the Caspian Sea - in flooding of the oil wells and oil-rigs and threat to lose biodiversity of the Caspian region. Significant territories of the country for the period of 1949 to 1991 were, and in some places still remain to be, under the pressing of the military industrial sector. Kazakhstan has suffered some the tests of nuclear weapons (Semipalatinsk and Azgyr), of military equipment and machines (Yemba, Sary-Shagan, Kapustin Yar), space tests are still carried out (Baikonur). Even today it is difficult to evaluate and calculate the damage caused on environment, agriculture, economy and human health of Kazakhstan by the irrational and cruel attitude to nature. These examples is only a small part of the ones that can be used to model and give the idea about the possible, even more serious consequences that will appear as a result of global climate change.
History of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan has been inhabited since the Stone Age: the region's climate and terrain are best suited for nomads practising pastoralism. Historians believe that humans first domesticated the horse in the region's vast steppes. While ancient cities Taraz (Aulie-Ata) and Hazrat-e Turkestan had long served as important way-stations along the Silk Road connecting East and West, real political consolidation only began with the Mongol invasion of the early thirteenth century AD. Under the Mongol Empire, administrative districts were established, and these eventually came under the emergent Kazakh Khanate.
Throughout this period traditional nomadic life and a livestock-based economy continued to dominate the steppe. In the 15th century, a distinct Kazakh identity began to emerge among the Turkic tribes, a process which was consolidated by the mid-16th century with the appearance of a distinctive Kazakh language, culture, and economy. Nevertheless, the region was the focus of ever-increasing disputes between the native Kazakh emirs and the neighboring Persian-speaking peoples to the south. By the early 17th century, the Kazakh Khanate was struggling with the impact of tribal rivalries, which has effectively divided the population into the Great, Middle and Little (or Small) Hordes (jüz). Political disunion, tribal rivalries, and the diminishing importance of overland trade routes between East and West weakened the Kazakh Khanate.
During the 17th century Kazakhs fought Oirats, a federation of western Mongol tribes, among which the Dzungars were particularly aggressive.[6] The beginning of the 18th century marked the zenith of the Kazakh Khanate. During this period the Little Horde participated in the 1723–1730 war against the Dzungars, following their "Great Disaster" invasion of Kazakh territories. Under leadership Abul Khair Khan the Kazakhs won major victories over the Dzungar at the Bulanty River, in 1726, and at the Battle of Anrakay in 1729.[7] Kazakhs were also a victims of constant raids carried out by the Volga Kalmyks.
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, also spelled Kazakstan (Kazakh: Қазақстан, Qazaqstan, IPA: [qɑzɑqˈstɑn]; Russian: Казахстан, Kazakhstán, Russian pronunciation: [kazəxˈstan]), officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a country in Central Asia and Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world as well as the world's largest landlocked country,[4][5] it has a territory of 2,727,300 km² (greater than Western Europe). It is bordered by Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and China. The country also borders on a significant part of the Caspian Sea.
Vast in size, the land in Kazakhstan is very diverse in types of terrain: flatlands, steppes, taigas, rock-canyons, hills, deltas, mountains, snow-capped mountains, and deserts. Kazakhstan has the 62nd largest population in the world, with a population density of less than 6 people per square kilometre (15 per sq. mi.).
