People and Places^263
FIND OUT MORE. China’s First Empire 378 • Habitats 82–84 • Islam 290 • Space Stations 33
WHERE IS THE WORLD’S LONGEST RAILWAY?
The Trans-Siberian Railway, the world’s
longest continuous rail line, crosses the
Russian Federation. It starts in
Moscow and runs 9,446 km
(5,870 miles) to the Pacific port
of Vladivostok. The whole journey
crosses eight time zones and takes
eight days to complete.2 RUSSIAN SPACE CENTRE,
KAZAKHSTAN
A rocket is towed to the launch
pad of the Russian Space Centre
at the Baykonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan. From here, the
Russians launched the world’s
first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1,
in 1957, and the first person in
space, Yuri Gagarin, in 1961.4 NENET PEOPLE, SIBERIA,
RUSSIAN FEDERATION
The Nenet people live in a cold,
inhospitable Arctic region of the
Russian Federation. This Siberian
community traditionally survived
by herding reindeer or trapping
wild animals. Today, however, the
region is being developed for its
huge reserves of gas.GEORGIA
Capital city: T’bilisi
Area: 69,700 sq km
(26,911 sq miles)
Population: 9.8 million
Official languages: Georgian and
Abkhazian (in Abkhazia)
ARMENIA
Capital city: Yerevan
Area: 29,800 sq km
(11,506 sq miles)
Population: 3.1million
Official language: Armenian
AZERBAIJAN
Capital city: Baku
Area: 86,600 sq km
(33,436 sq miles)
Population: 8.7million
Official language: Azerbaijani
KAZAKHSTAN
Capital city: Astana
Area: 2,717,300 sq km
(1,049,150 sq miles)
Population: 15.7 million
Official language: Kazakh
TURKMENISTAN
Capital city: Ashgabat
Area: 488,100 sq km
(188,455 sq miles)
Population: 5 million
Official language: Turkmen
AFGHANISTAN
Capital city: Kabul
Area: 647,500 sq km
(250,000 sq miles)
Population: 29 million
Official languages: Pashtu
and Dari
UZBEKISTAN
Capital city: Tashkent
Area: 447,400 sq km
(172,741 sq miles)
Population: 27.3 million
Official language: Uzbek
TAJIKISTAN
Capital city: Dushanbe
Area: 143,100 sq km
(55,251 sq miles)
Population: 6.8 million
Official language: Tajik
KYRGYZSTAN
Capital city: Bishkek
Area: 198,500 sq km
(76,641 sq miles)
Population: 5.3 million
Official languages: Kyrgyz
and Russian
RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Capital city: Moscow
Area: 17,075,200 sq km
(6,592,735 sq miles)
Population: 141.9 million
Official language: Russian4 METAL WORKER,
RUSSIAN FEDERATION
This copper foundry in
western Siberia is typical
of the heavy industry
that has dominated the
Russian economy. Many
such factories are old
and inefficient, and
also pollute the
environment.DO MANY PEOPLE LIVE IN SIBERIA?
Siberia, a vast, bitterly cold region of tundra, pine
forest, rivers, and lakes, is sparsely populated. The
Yakut and other native peoples survive there by
hunting, fishing, and herding reindeer. Siberia
stretches from the Ural Mountains in the west to the
Pacific Ocean in the east. The region is rich in natural
resources, such as coal, oil, gas, diamonds, and gold.WHY IS THE ARAL SEA SHRINKING?
The Aral Sea in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan was once
the world’s fourth largest freshwater lake. Today, it is
shrinking at an alarming rate because the rivers that
feed it, the Syr Darya and the Amu Darya, have been
diverted to irrigate cotton fields. A fishing village that
once stood on the lake’s banks now stands 48 km
(30 miles) from
the shore.RUSSIAN FEDERATION &
CENTRAL ASIAcentral
Asia