Kyrgyzstan Regions

Kyrgyzstan is a country of mountains, most of it above a thousand metres, and its people live in the valleys between them: the Chui valley round Bishkek in the north, and the Fergana valley and the foothills in the south west. The regions are how the country says where in those ranges you are.

The quiz: Name to place, on the map
Grouped by: North and south, the split the country is usually described in
In the game: 9 regions

Start

What you are looking at

The regions (oblasts) of Kyrgyzstan, the first tier of the country. There are seven of them, and two cities of republican significance that are counted as regions of their own: Bishkek, the capital, and Osh, the second city of the south. Both are specks beside the seven, so the game gives them tap areas.

Most regions are named for their regional centre or for the lake or river they hold. Issyk-Kul takes its name from the lake that fills the middle of it, which shows as a gap in the map rather than as part of the region, as does the smaller Chatyr-Kol in Naryn. Bishkek sits inside Chui Region and Osh city inside Osh Region, each leaving a small hole in the region around it.

The groups are an unofficial north and south, a way to drill the map in two halves rather than an administrative level. The regions are the Kyrgyzstan Districts grouped, so the borders of the two maps match exactly.

How to place one

Start in the north. Chui is the small valley region along the Kazakh border with the capital in it, Talas is the one to its west, and Issyk-Kul is the long one to the east round the lake.
Find the middle. Naryn is the biggest region and fills the centre, from the lake south to the Chinese border.
Take the south as a hand. Jalal-Abad, Osh and Batken are the three regions that reach into the Fergana valley, and Batken is the thin one on the far south west tip.
Look for the dots. Osh city sits inside Osh Region on the Uzbek border, and Bishkek is the one inside Chui.

Every region, by part

North5 regions: Bishkek, Chui, Issyk-Kul, Naryn, Talas
South4 regions: Batken, Jalal-Abad, Osh, Osh (city)

Worked examples

Naryn

The biggest of them

Naryn is the largest region of Kyrgyzstan, a high plateau of pasture in the centre running to the Chinese border, and the emptiest.

Issyk-Kul

The one with the lake

Issyk-Kul Region is the east of the country, wrapped round one of the largest mountain lakes in the world, which never freezes. The lake is drawn as empty space in the middle of it.

Bishkek

The capital inside a region

Bishkek is the capital and a region of its own, in the Chui valley with Chui Region on every side. It is one of the two small answers on the map.

Frequently asked questions

How many regions does Kyrgyzstan have?

Nine: seven regions (oblasts) and the two cities of republican significance, Bishkek and Osh.

Why is the lake not part of a region?

The boundaries the map is drawn from stop at the shore, so Lake Issyk-Kul is a gap in the middle of the country rather than part of the region that surrounds it.

What is below the region?

The districts, which number 55 on this map. They are their own quiz.

The tier below this one is Kyrgyzstan Districts. For another country at this level, see Kazakhstan Regions.

Sources

OCHA, Kyrgyzstan administrative boundaries (COD-AB), on HDX, the boundaries; the regions are the districts dissolved, so the two maps share every border
Regions of Kyrgyzstan, the seven regions and the two cities

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