Kyrgyzstan is landlocked. The national territory extends for approximately 900 km from east to west and 410 km from north to south.
Kyrgyzstan borders are shared in the east and southeast with China, in the north with Kazakhstan, in the west with Uzbekistan and in the south with Tajikistan. The borders with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the Ferghana Valley are quite impassable. One of the consequences of the Stalinist division of Central Asia into five republics is that many ethnic Kyrgyz do not live in Kyrgyzstan. Three enclaves were created that are legally part of the Kyrgyzstan’s territory but geographically separated by several kilometers: two in Uzbekistan and one in Tajikistan.
The Tien Shan and Pamir mountain systems prevail in the relief of Kyrgyzstan, which together occupies about 65% of the national territory. Part of the Alai ridge of the Tien Shan system dominates the southwestern crescent of the country, and in the east, the main Tien Shan ridge runs along the border between South Kyrgyzstan and China and then extends further east to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. The average height of the territory of Kyrgyzstan is 2750 meters, ranging from 7439 m at the peak of Victory to 394 meters in the Ferghana Valley near the city of Osh. Almost 90% of the country’s territory is more than 1,500 meters above sea level
