Kazakstan’s claim to fame is that it is the world’s largest landlocked country. It covers a greater area than the whole of western Europe! The capital is Almaty, Kazakstan’s largest city. Kazakstan has a little of everything – mountains, deserts, flatlands, steppes, rock canyons and deltas. Since its independence in 1991 from Russia it is a dominant state. The caviar from the Caspian Sea is world famous. The first manned spaceflight from Kazakstan was in 1961 by Yuryi Gagarin, a Russian cosmonaut. Pity they didn’t have a webcam with them then!