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PENNSVALLEY
Central Asia
Lesson 61:
Political and Physical Features of Central Asia
Central Asiahas historically servedas a crossroads for themovement of people, goods, and ideas
betweenEurope, theMiddleEast, SouthAsia, andEast Asia.Therearesixcountries thatmakeup this
region.They areKazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, andKyrgyzstan.Turn
to page 106 to view this region in the context of all other regions of Asia
(LLB=Lesson 54)
.
Not all geographersagreeonwhat countriesmakeup this region.Somemapmakershave included
Mongolia and the western region of China as part of Central Asia. Other mapmakers have excluded
these places.Somemapmakers placeAfghanistan in theSouthAsia region instead of Central Asia. It
depends uponwhat map source you use.
ACTIVITY:
Let’s take a tour of the countries aroundCentral Asia.Use your classroom school atlas to learnwhere
the countries are located.A) Use the numbers in the chart below to locate andwrite the names of the
countries in the blanks on your regional map on the next page. B) Next, use the letters to label each
country’s capital city. C) After you have located and labeled each country, find its borders and trace
them with colored pencils or crayons. D) Locate and label “other features” from the chart on the
regional map on the next page.
Central Asia
Country
Capital City
Other Features
0
1. Kazakhstan
A. Astana
11.CaspianSea (saltwater)
0
2.Uzbekistan
B.Tashkent
12. Aral Sea (freshwater)
0
3.Turkmenistan
C. Ashgabat
13. steppes
0
4. Afghanistan
D. Kabul
14.Hindi KushMountains
0
5.Tajikistan
E.Dushanbe
15. Pamirs (mountains)
0
6. Kyrgyzstan
F. Bishkek
16.TienShan (mountains)
0
7.Russian Federation
17. deserts
0
8.China
0
9. Pakistan
10. Iran
Some of the countries in Central Asia can be hard to spell. However, one thing to help you learn
the countries is that all of them have a suffix that ends in “stan.” In the languages of the region, “stan”
stands for “the land of.” So, the land of the Uzbeks, an ethnic group in the region, is Uzbekistan.The
landof another ethnicgroup, theTajiks, isTajikistan.Except forAfghanistan, all of thesecountrieswere
part of theSoviet Union that fell apart in 1991.
