ErebusFact library / Countries
6 countries in Central Asia, each with a picture to fix its place, shape or name in your memory.
Kyrgyzstan is a mountainous Central Asian country, around 90% mountains, with its capital at Bishkek.
Picture it
A flock of GEESE honks on top of every mountain peak in Central Asia: "KEER-GEESE!" Down in the valley, a wizard zaps a cake with a spell: "BISH!" and it becomes a Bish-CAKE.
Memory hooks
Say it: Kyrgyzstan (KEER·giz·stan)
Kazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country, and its capital, Astana, means "capital" in Kazakh.
Picture it
A huge Cossack dancer ("KAZ-akh") kicks across an endless steppe the size of Western Europe, searching for the ocean and never finding it. He gives up and settles in a city simply called "A-STAN-a": the capital.
Memory hooks
Turkmenistan's Darvaza gas crater, nicknamed the "Door to Hell", has been burning since at least the 1970s.
Picture it
In the middle of a vast desert, a giant TURKEY stands on the edge of a glowing crater, roasting. The crater has been on fire for decades: a door to hell that nobody can close.
Memory hooks
Afghanistan is landlocked, with the long, thin Wakhan Corridor reaching east to China; its capital is Kabul.
Picture it
A landlocked country stretches out one long, thin FINGER, the Wakhan Corridor, through the mountains to poke China. Down in the capital, a CABLE car ("KAH-bul") climbs the hills.
Memory hooks
Tajikistan is a mountainous Central Asian country whose capital, Dushanbe, means "Monday", after a market once held there that day.
Picture it
In the towering Pamir Mountains, a market only ever opens on one day of the week. Every MONDAY the traders shout "DO-SHAMBE!": DUSHANBE.
Memory hooks
Say it: Dushanbe (doo·SHAHN·beh)
Uzbekistan, a Silk Road country in Central Asia, is doubly landlocked, and its capital is Tashkent.
Picture it
On the old Silk Road, a trader hides his CASH in a TENT: TASH-KENT. To reach the sea he'd have to cross two countries, because his land is doubly landlocked.
Memory hooks