Republic of Uzbekistan

　　Location: Central Asia, north of Afghanistan

　　Area: 447,400 sq km

　　Climate: mostly midlatitude desert, long, hot summers, mild winters; semiarid grassland in east

　　Terrain: mostly flat-to-rolling sandy desert with dunes; broad, flat intensely irrigated river valleys along course of Amu Darya, Sirdaryo (Syr Darya), and Zarafshon; Fergana Valley in east surrounded by mountainous Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan; shrinking Aral Sea in west

　　Population: 24,102,473 (July 1999 est.)

　　Religions: Muslim 88% (mostly Sunnis), Eastern Orthodox 9%, other 3%

　　Languages: Uzbek 74.3%, Russian 14.2%, Tajik 4.4%, other 7.1%

　　Capital: Tashkent (Toshkent)