Uzbekistan Geography - 2024

Location

Central Asia, north of Turkmenistan, south of Kazakhstan

Geographic coordinates

41 00 N, 64 00 E

Map references

Asia

Area

total: 447,400 sq km

land: 425,400 sq km

water: 22,000 sq km

Area - comparative

about four times the size of Virginia; slightly larger than California

Area comparison map:

Land boundaries

total: 6,893 km

border countries (5): Afghanistan 144 km; Kazakhstan 2,330 km; Kyrgyzstan 1,314 km; Tajikistan 1,312 km; Turkmenistan 1,793 km

Coastline

0 km (doubly landlocked); note - Uzbekistan includes the southern portion of the Aral Sea with a 420 km shoreline

Maritime claims

none (doubly landlocked)

Climate

mostly mid-latitude 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, Syr Darya (Sirdaryo), and Zaravshan; Fergana Valley in east surrounded by mountainous Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan; shrinking Aral Sea in west

Elevation

highest point: Xazrat Sulton Tog' 4,643 m

lowest point: Sariqamish Kuli -12 m

Natural resources

natural gas, petroleum, coal, gold, uranium, silver, copper, lead and zinc, tungsten, molybdenum

Land use

agricultural land: 62.6% (2018 est.)

arable land: 10.1% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 0.8% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 51.7% (2018 est.)

forest: 7.7% (2018 est.)

other: 29.7% (2018 est.)

Irrigated land

37,320 sq km (2020)

Major lakes (area sq km)

fresh water lake(s): Aral Sea (shared with Kazakhstan) - largely dried up

Major rivers (by length in km)

Syr Darya (shared with Kyrgyzstan [s], Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan [m]) - 3,078 km; Amu Darya river mouth (shared with Tajikistan [s], Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan) - 2,620 km
note – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth

Major watersheds (area sq km)

Internal (endorheic basin) drainage: (Aral Sea basin) Amu Darya (534,739 sq km), Syr Darya (782,617 sq km)

Population distribution

most of the population is concentrated in the fertile Fergana Valley in the easternmost arm of the country; the south has significant clusters of people, while the central and western deserts are sparsely populated

Natural hazards

earthquakes; floods; landslides or mudslides; avalanches; droughts

Geography - note

along with Liechtenstein, one of the only two doubly landlocked countries in the world