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The largest land in Central Asia — it ’s as big as all of Western Europe combined — change state 20 years old today , and to keep , here ’s a list of ten random facts about everyone ’s favorite Kazakh - speaking ‘ Stan .
1 . For Make profit magnificent Nation of KazakhstanBorat , the fictitious newsman invented by the English comic Sasha Baron Cohen , hails from Kazakhstan . In Baron Cohen ’s 2006 smash hit movie , Borat describes his aboriginal land in less than flattering terms , as an impoverished region where harlotry and child marriage are overabundant , and the great unwashed drink “ sawbuck urine ” for play . In response to such bad — if genuinely comedic — publicity , the Kazakhstan governing bought full - varlet ads in The New York Times and the U.S. News and World Report , and commercials on CNN and the local ABC affiliate in Washington , D.C. , begging Americans to get to know the literal Kazakhstan , too .
2 . How You wish Them Apples?Those Granny Smiths sitting in your fruit bowlful right now ? They ’re the great- great- great- granddaughter of fantastic apple , Malus sieversii , which are earlier from modern - day Kazakhstan . According to Christopher Robbins ’ 2008 travel book , apple Are From Kazakstan(required recitation for any visitor of that wind - parched land ) , the wild apples were play to the Middle East 2,300 years ago , where they were civilise and finally export worldwide .
3 . Tiptoe Through the …
Tulips are from the mountains within , and surrounding , innovative - day Kazakhstan , too . They were also later cultivated in Turkey and then exported to Europe , causing what historians refer to as “ Tulipmania ” in the Netherlands . The 17th - 100 Dutch were reportedly so taken with the waxen flowers that a exclusive medulla oblongata was sometimes sold for the price of an entire household in Amsterdam .
4 . Horsing AroundHorses and cattle have been so full of life to nomadic Kazakh culture for so long , a common greeting in the countryside ask not if you are OK , but “ Are your oxen OK ? ” A 2009 archeological survey found that people in mod day Kazakhstan are among the first in the world to tamed horses , and to utilise them for horseback riding , body of work , milk and inwardness . Besparmak , boiled hunk of horseflesh , is still on traditional Kazakh computer menu today .
5 . King Arthur was a Kazakh?According to Robbins ’ book , the renowned , purportedly Celtic , King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table may have really been Kazakh horsemen . While that ’s scarcely a level of historic certainty , Robbins describes the claim as “ serious scholarly speculation . ” And it kind of make signified : If King Arthur lived at all , he would have lived around 1500 years ago — right around the time that Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius sent K of cavalrymen from mod - twenty-four hour period Kazakhstan to represent the fringes of the Roman Empire in the modernistic British Isles . The air force officer of those Central Asian cavalryman just happened to be named Lucius Artorius Castus , or “ Artyr ” in Welsh .
6 . StungDespite its gorgeous , lunar countryside — not to mention its handful of historical claim to fame — Kazakhstan , led by President Nursultan Nazarbayev , remains a largely inhibitory , corrupt and undemocratic bastion for some pretty downhearted human rights abuses . In July this year , the famous English cradle , Sting , cancelled a concert the mean solar day before it was scheduled — on President Nazarbayev ’s birthday , no less — in the Kazakh capital , cite human rightfulness vexation .
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The World ’s Biggest Tent , built by humankind - notable architect Norman Foster , is in Astana , the capital of Kazakhstan . But that ’s not all : Astana , this futurist , frigid radar target upon the Kazakh steppe , was make by the sheer military group of will of President Nazarbayev , who also commissioned a massive Pyramids of Egypt ( also build by Foster ) , a shimmer concert hall ( a nod to the Sydney Opera House ) , and a rather hideous tower , called the Bayterek ( pictured ) , shaped like a Poplar tree crow by a giant gilded egg and decorated by — what else?—Nazarbayev ’s gilded hand print .
9 . Family Feud!Politics in Kazakhstan are fifty percent antique - Soviet machinations and fifty percentage good afternoon soap opera . For model , for the last half - decade , President Nazarbayev has been lock in touchy , external power struggle — alternately described as a “ warfare of contrition ” and a “ ancestry feud ” by Western newspapers — with his former son - in - law , Rakhat Aliyev . Aliyev , who has publicly criticized his father - in - law ’s human right hand abuses , has also been accuse of torment people . Both man ’s figure bubble up in political chin-wag circles from D.C. to Beijing .
10 . Dances With HorsesAn equestrian - themed dance craze has been cross Kazakhstan for the last couple class , with flash mobs the size of small cities meet in malls , streets and public parks to execute a extend traditional dance , visit Kara Zhorga . In September this yr , near 60,000 people turned out on the streets of Oskemen , a city in eastern Kazakhstan , according to EurasiaNet . The year before , 15,000 turned out in the westerly city of Atyrau to shake up , shimmy and gallop the dark forth . Giddy - up !
