Central Asia facts

Islam. Muslims constitute 90% of the population of Uzbekistan. During the Soviet era, Uzbekistan had sixty-five registered mosques and as many as 3,000 active mullahs and other Muslim clerics. For almost forty years, the Muslim Board of Central Asia, the official, Soviet-approved governing agency of the Muslim faith in the region, was based in Tashkent.

Islam is the largest religion in Kazakhstan, followed by Eastern Orthodoxy. After decades of religious suppression by the Soviet Union, the coming of independence witnessed a surge in expression of ethnic identity, partly through religion. Hundreds of mosques, churches, and other religious structures were built in the span of a few years.

Ashgabat is the capital and the largest city of Turkmenistan in Central Asia, situated between the Karakum Desert and the Kopet Dag mountain range.The city was founded in 1881, and made the capital of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic in 1924. Much of the city was destroyed by the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake but has since seen extensive renovation under President Saparmurat Niyazov's urban renewal project. The Karakum Canal runs through the city, carrying waters from the Amu Darya from east to west.

Nur Sultan is the capital of Kazakhstan, but not its largest city (it is Almaty).

Ashgabat. In 1948, Ashgabat was hit a major earthquake (7.3 on the Richter scale), which killed 60% of the population of the city (110,000-176,000)

1971. The Darvaza gas crater known as the "Door to Hell" is a natural gas field in Derweze, Turkmenistan, that collapsed into an underground cavern, becoming a natural gas crater with the diameter of 69 m and the depth of 30 m. Geologists set it on fire in 1971 to prevent the spread of methane gas. It was estimated that the gas would burn out within a few weeks, but instead it has been burning continuously ever since.