This area occupies just under 500 thousand square kilometers of south central Kazakhstan, stretching west to east from the Aral Sea to Lake Balkash. Almost all of it is within the Turanian Lowland, and--away from river and mountain valleys--it is desert.
The Chu's headwaters are in the mountain ranges that are part of the Tyan(3) Mountains(4). These rise above 2,000 meters here in the extreme southeast of the region, and again, as the Karatau Range, southwest of the Muyunkum Desert.
Lake Balkash, bounding the area's northeast, is the largest area of freshwater.(5) The next largest is the Chardarinskoye Reservoir on the Syrdarya as that river enters the nation.
There are no cities of half a million or more, and, of the two that approach that size, neither predominates.
northwest
north and northeast
southeast
south and southwest
(1) Can also be transliterated as Khazakhstan or Qazaqstan.
(2) Ontustik in Kazakh.
(3) Also spelled Tien or T'ien. It means 'heavenly' in Chinese.
(4) Shan in Chinese.
(5) It is Asia's fourth largest lake, Only its western half is fresh.