Central Asia - cradle of Antique Civilization

Central Asia’s landscape can be divided into the vast grassy steppes of Kazakhstan in the north and the Aral Sea drainage basin in the south. About 60 percent of the region consists of desert land, the principal deserts being the Kara-Kum, occupying most of Turkmenistan, and the Kyzyl-Kum, covering much of western Uzbekistan. Most of the desert areas are unsuitable for agricultural use except along the margins of the Amu Darya and Sir Darya river systems, which wind their way northwestward through Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and eastern Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan after rising in mountain ranges to the south and east. These two major rivers drain into the Aral Sea and provide most of the region’s water resources, though northern Kazakhstan is drained by rivers flowing north into Russia. On the east and south Central Asia is bounded by the western Altai and other high mountain ranges extending into Iran, Afghanistan, and western China.

Central Asia experiences very dry climatic conditions, and inadequate precipitation has led to heavy dependence on the Sir Darya and Amu Darya for irrigation. The region as a whole experiences hot summers and cool winters, with much sunshine and very little precipitation. The scarcity of water has led to a very uneven population distribution, with most people living along the fertile banks of the rivers or in fertile mountain foothills in the southeast; comparatively few live