Types of Tours › Forums › Kazakhstan › 7 things to know about Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is the largest landlocked country in the world with a beautiful nature and friendly people, what do we think we know about Kazakhstan that doesn’t face the reality correctly?

1. National Anthem
Well, let’s be honest, the first thing coming to your mind when hearing Kazakhstan is most probably Borat and of course the soundtrack from the same movie instead of the real national anthem, which is “Менің Қазақстаным” translated as “My Kazakhstan”. Why mentioning this on first position? Well, because in March 2012 at the Amir of Kuwait International Shooting Grand Prix it happened, during the ceremony instead of the anthem, was played the soundtrack for Borat.

2. Every name has a meaning
Kazakhstan for example, translates from Persian as the Land of the Adventurer, as the part “Stan” stands from Persian as Land and “Kazakh” means adventurer or wanderer.
Another example could be the name Almaty (the largest city in the country and the former capital) means a place of apples, as it is believed that the first apple tree grew in this area.
And the most important, the capita, Astana’s name means “capital city”

3. Importance of horses:
Horses are having a very big importance for the Kazakh culture. First of all, it is believed that the process of domestication of the horses started here, in Kazakhstan, the first horses were ride here. Secondly, the Kazakh national food cannot simply exist without horses. In the menu of a restaurant in Astana half of the meals including meat will be with horse meat, in fact even the traditional beverage, which is “Kumys” is made out of mare’s milk.

4. New Year is celebrated 3 times
In Kazakhstan we celebrate the New Year three times a year. Isn’t it fantastic? The first one is celebrated in January the 1st, the second one is called “Old New Year” and is celebrated on 14th of January. It’s basically the celebration according to the old, Julian calendar that was used in the country back in time and is a very specific holiday for many post-Sovietic countries. The third one, is a very specific holiday called, Nauryz Meyramy and is celebrated according to the Kazakhstan traditions on the March 22nd.

5. Homeland of the Amazons.
Archaeologists believe that the brave female warriors were living in Kazakhstan. There are more proofs of that, but the main one is believed to be the fact that the Scythian women of the 7th to 3rd centuries B.C. were fighters and fought as warriors.

6. Rich in chemical elements
Do you remember the periodic table of elements that you learned in school? Well, you have to know that out of 110 elements that can be found in nature, 99 have been detected in Kazakhstan. Even more than that, in 2011 the country produced 35% of the world’s Uraniun production.

7. Superstitions
Kazakh people are very attached to superstition and symbolism, in fact, it’s a cult. They live by these rules, few examples of them: whistling in a building brings poverty; the ones who need to be more eloquent eat cow’s tongue; someone who needs to listen more is served ears.

Visit Kazakhstan and follow us for more interesting articles on Silk Road countries.