The Five 'Stans' of Central Asia Quiz

Answer: Kyrgyzstan

Lake Issyk-Kul is one of Kyrgyzstan's most famous lakes and is popular with tourists and hikers alike due to being surrounded by beautiful scenery, such as the Teskey Ala-Too Range on its southern shore. It is an ancient saline lake, fed by springs and glaciers, and its name means 'warm lake'.

In the days of the Silk Road, it was a stopover, and is also thought to have been the source of the Black Death in the 14th century; genetic material from corpses buried in the area showed that they had been infected with the plague. Ancient gold coins and a bronze cauldron have been found in the lake, as well as remnants of former settlements.

Answer: Turkmenistan

The Akhal-Teke is a rare breed of horse from Turkmenistan, famous for its distinctive appearance. It has a sleek and glossy coat with an almost metallic sheen, giving it the nickname of 'the golden horse', long ears and sloping shoulders. Its speed and resilience make it an excellent racehorse and warhorse, having been used in battle by Turkmen tribes fighting the Russian Empire. It is thought to be descended from the Turkmene or Turkoman horse, an ancient breed from the steppes of Central Asia. In the Soviet era, breed numbers were reduced due to being slaughtered for meat, though many Turkmens refused to eat them.

The Akhal-Teke is a national symbol and even has a day in its honour, Turkmen Horse Day, on the last Sunday in April, when horse races and horse beauty contests take place. It has also appeared on banknotes and postage stamps. The Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow was also an Akhal-Teke enthusiast; he wrote a book about the breed and a golden statue of him riding an Akhal-Teke was unveiled in Ashgabat in 2015.

Answer: Uzbekistan

Bukhara is a city in Uzbekistan (although most of the people there speak the Tajik dialect of Farsi, rather than Uzbek) located on the old Silk Road, and its historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. From 892 to 999, it was the capital of the Samanid Empire.

It also once housed a large Jewish community, though many Bukharan Jews emigrated to Israel and the US following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Bukhara is famous for its Islamic architecture: notable buildings include the Po-i-Kalyan mosque complex, the Bolo Haouz Mosque with its howz (a type of pool), the Ark of Bukhara - a massive fortress - and the Chor Minor gatehouse.

Answer: Tajikistan

Tajikistan is one of the most mountainous countries of Central Asia, with 93% of the country being covered by mountains. The Fann Mountains are part of the Zarafshan Range, one of the ranges of the Pamir-Alay Mountains, and are close to the Uzbek border, near Samarkand.

They are entirely located in Tajikistan, in the Sughd Province in the northwest, with the highest point being Chimtarga (5489 km high). A popular site for experienced trekkers, they are home to multiple lakes, such as the glacial Kulikalon Lakes - a birdwatchers' paradise - and Iskanderkul, named for Alexander the Great.

Answer: Kazakhstan

Baikonur is located in Kazakhstan, but is under Russian administration. In the days of the USSR, it was also known as Zvezdograd ('star city') and played a major role in the Soviet space race, being the site of Baikonur Cosmodrome, the heart of the Soviet space programme. Because of its scientific importance, it is one of several closed cities under Russian administration, meaning a special permit is required to visit or stay overnight. It was originally a village known as Tyuratam, then became Leninsk when it was expanded into a city, but was renamed after a small mining village in order to keep the location of the new cosmodrome a secret; Boris Yeltsin officially renamed it in 1995.

There is a small museum next to the Cosmodrome, which includes a cottage that once belonged to Yuri Gagarin. It houses a Buran spaceplane and photographs of all cosmonauts who have been on expeditions launched from Baikonur.

Answer: Turkmenistan

The Darvaza Gas Crater, also known as the Door to Hell, is one of Turkmenistan's most famous sites and tourist attractions, in a country generally not known for tourism. It is located in the Karakum Desert, near the village of Darvaza.

It is not a natural phenomenon, but rather, the result of human error; although the exact circumstances of its origins are unclear, thanks to information from the time being unavailable or classified. The main theory is that a gas drilling rig collapsed in the 1970s (Turkmenistan having large quantities of natural gas). Soviet scientists then set the crater on fire to burn off poisonous gases under the ground, but the fire would not go out and continued to burn for several years. However, some Turkmen geologists argue that the crater collapsed in the 1960s and was not set on fire until the 1980s.

In 2013, explorer George Kourounis descended into the crater and collected soil samples, on an expedition funded by National Geographic. He had to have a harness made out of Kevlar because an ordinary one would have melted. One of Kourounis' objectives was to see if life could survive down there, and indeed, he found samples of bacteria.

Answer: Kyrgyzstan

Osh is the second largest city in Kyrgyzstan and the country's oldest city. It is located in the Fergana Valley, an area shared between Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. A Silk Road site, its outdoor bazaar, the Jayma Bazaar, has been ongoing for 2000 years and used to be a silk production centre. Osh is also home to the Sulayman Mountain, Kyrgyzstan's only UNESCO World Heritage site, which has a mosque on its highest peak and a museum, the National Historical and Archaeological Museum Complex Sulayman, carved into its rock.

A large Uzbek community live in the city due to its proximity to Uzbekistan.

Answer: Kazakhstan

Karaganda, AKA Qaraghandy, is the fifth largest city in Kazakhstan and is named after the caragana plant, a flowering plant in the Fabaceae family. It is a mining town, large coal deposits having been discovered in the 1920s, and was considered as a possible capital for Kazakhstan before being passed over for Astana. At its peak during the Soviet era, it was home to 26 coal mines; however, a side effect is that it has very high levels of air pollution. It was also home to Karlag Prison, one of the most notorious gulags of Stalin's era.

Karaganda is close to the Bugyly Mountains, home to the Bugyly Nature Reserve, a protected area of steppe. Because of its relatively isolated location in the Kazakh Uplands, it is the punchline to a Russian joke: "Gde? V Karagande!" ("Where? In Karaganda!")

Answer: Uzbekistan

Karakalpakstan is an autonomous republic of Uzbekistan in the northwest of the country, with a flag that resembles the Uzbekistan flag, but with a yellow stripe instead of a white one.

It is one of the poorest areas of Uzbekistan, thanks to the evaporation of the Aral Sea and the diversion of the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers for the purpose of cotton farming. The loss of water sources has resulted in crop failures, windborne fertiliser and pesticide residues from the bed of the Aral Sea, and a loss of drinking water, which in turn has led to the spread of infectious diseases. Much of Karakalpakstan is desert; the Kyzyl Kum desert, divided between Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, lies to the east, while the Karakum desert, most of which is in Turkmenistan, lies to the south.

Answer: Tajikistan

Gorno-Badakhshan, or GBAO for short, is an autonomous region of Tajikistan, located in the Pamir Mountains in the east. Although it is fairly large, taking up 45% of the country's land, it only contains 2% of its population. It is separated from Pakistan by the Wakhan Corridor, a strip of territory that connects Afghanistan and Xinjiang (which lie south and east of the GBAO respectively). Osh in Kyrgyzstan, another city featured in this quiz, lies to the north of the GBAO.

Its capital is Khorog, home to a botanical garden and forests of poplar trees. Three of Central Asia's highest mountains are also located in the GBAO: Ismoil Somoni Peak (Tajikistan's highest mountain), Ibn Sina Peak and Peak Ozodi.

Answer: Kazakhstan

Almaty, also known as Alma-Ata, is Kazakhstan's largest city and former capital until 1997, when the country's capital was relocated to Akmola (now Astana). It is located in the southeast of Kazakhstan on the border with Kyrgyzstan. It is the cultural and financial capital of Kazakhstan and has a reputation for beautiful scenery; the Medeu, an outdoor ice rink, is located in the middle of a mountain valley and the Mynjylky Plateau lies 28km south of the city.

It is also home to the colourful wooden Ascension Cathedral and multiple fountains, including the Oriental Calendar fountain, which depicts statues of twelve animals representing the Kazakh twelve-year cycle.

Answer: Uzbekistan

Samarkand is a city in southeast Uzbekistan and one of the most famous stops on the Silk Road, as well as a treasure trove of Islamic history and architecture. One of Uzbekistan's oldest cities, it was once the centre of the Sogdian Dynasty (an ancient Iranian civilisation) and was conquered by Alexander the Great in 329 BCE.

After the capture of Samarkand by the Umayyad Caliphate, it became a centre of Islamic learning and culture, the remnants of which can still be seen today; many buildings, such as the Gur-e-Amir Mausoleum and the madrassas of the Registan public square, are covered in intricate mosaics.

Answer: Tajikistan

Yes, this is a real game. Similar to polo, it is played on horseback (although yaks can also be used as mounts), and the object of the game is to get the headless carcass of a goat into a goal. Although variants of it are played across Central Asia, buzkashi is the Tajikistan (and Afghan) variant; it is known as Ulak Tartysh in Kyrgyzstan and kupkari in Uzbekistan.

Buzkashi season in Tajikistan is a few months shorter than the British football season, as it lasts from November to April due to temperatures being cooler at this time. Buzkashi can also be played at weddings in Tajikistan and among Tajiks in Xinjiang, and is sponsored by the bride's father. Aside from a few basic rules, anything goes and injuries to both riders and mounts are common.

Answer: Kyrgyzstan

Beshbarmak is the national dish of Kyrgyzstan and means 'five fingers', because it is traditionally eaten with the hands. It is a mixture of chopped boiled meat (usually mutton, but beef, chicken, horse or yak can be used as well), egg noodles, vegetables such as potatoes or carrots, and an onion sauce called chyk. It is traditionally preceded by shorpo, a type of soup made from mutton broth.

Because of the nomadic lifestyles of the ancient peoples of the steppe, Central Asian food in central is very meat-centric, with mutton and lamb being used as staple meats (the five countries in this quiz are Muslim countries, so it's rare to find pork dishes). Horse meat is also consumed in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan; Kazakhstan is the world's biggest consumer of horse meat next to China. Qazi is a sausage-like dish made from horse meat. Fermented mare's milk, or kumis (known as airag in Mongolia), is also consumed in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, although it is rare.

Answer: Turkmenistan

Ashgabat is the capital of Turkmenistan and one of the world's most distinctive cities, with a record number of 543 buildings in its centre being made almost entirely of white marble following Turkmenistan's independence in 1991 and the redevelopment of the city. Travel bloggers who have visited Ashgabat - not an easy process, as Turkmenistan is a difficult country to get into - have described how surreal it is to be surrounded by a vast expanse of white, including an indoor ferris wheel, Ashgabat International Airport (with its falcon-shaped roof), and the Gypjak Mosque. Many Muslims refuse to visit this mosque because - rather offensively - the inside of the mosque is inscribed with text from the Ruhnama, the guidebook written by former president Saparmurat 'Turkmenbashi' Nizayov, as well as text from the Qu'ran.

However, this splendour came at a price; many homes were demolished and canals rerouted to create the white city, with devastating effects for both people and wildlife. Very few Turkmens can actually afford to live in the white marble part of the city due to the high cost of living, and live in the northern part instead.