Kazakhstan vs Uzbekistan

Why people mix them up

Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are neighbours in Central Asia, both former Soviet republics with names ending in "-stan", which means "land of". Their languages are both Turkic and partly related, they share the shrinking Aral Sea, and both have large steppe and desert areas. With five "-stans" in the region, people often lose track of which is which and how they compare in size.

How to tell them apart

• Kazakhstan is the largest landlocked country in the world, about 2.7 million km², roughly six times the size of Uzbekistan.
• Uzbekistan is doubly landlocked: none of its neighbours have a coast on the open ocean either. Kazakhstan borders the Caspian Sea, which is itself enclosed.
• Kazakhstan's flag is sky blue with a golden sun and eagle and a gold ornament at the hoist; Uzbekistan's has blue, white and green horizontal stripes with thin red lines, a white crescent and twelve stars.
• The capitals are Astana (Kazakhstan) and Tashkent (Uzbekistan).
• Kazakhstan borders Russia and China; Uzbekistan borders Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
• The currencies are the tenge (Kazakhstan) and the som (Uzbekistan).

Memory hook

Kazakhstan is the King-sized one, stretching from the Caspian to China. Uzbekistan is Under it, the country of the old Silk Road cities of Samarkand and Bukhara.

On the map

Find the Caspian Sea and look east. The huge country stretching from the Caspian all the way to China, directly south of Russia, is Kazakhstan. Uzbekistan lies just below Kazakhstan's southern edge, a long, oddly shaped country running from the Aral Sea southeast to the fertile Fergana Valley. If the country you are tapping touches Russia, it is Kazakhstan.