Uzbekistan is located in Central Asia, just north of Afghanistan. It is a doubly landlocked country that has at its borders the other 4 Central Asian republics, namely Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. It also shares a tiny stretch of 137 km with Afghanistan. Of its total area of 447,400 square kilometres much is in stretches of sandy arid land. Equally though, a lot of Uzbekistan is flat and fertile, irrigated by the Amu and Syr Darya and the Zeravshan. These rivers form the lifeline of the people of this hot land: providing water for man and beast and for crops.

Most of Uzbekistan is arid; the great swathe of land in the northwest is part of the Kyzyl Kum Desert. The Aral Sea is in the northwest, partly in Uzbekistan and partly in Kazakhstan. Under assault from toxic pollution the Aral Sea has begun to dry out at a startlingly rapid rate. The southeastern extremity is the fertile Ferghana Valley, which lies between the Chatkal and the Fan mountains.

Southwest Uzbekistan is fertile and cities and rural agrarian settlement are concentrated in these areas. The Khiva Oasis finds its water supply from the Amu Darya and the famous Ferghana Valley owes its dazzle to the waters of the Syr Darya and its tributaries. The Tashkent Oasis is irrigated by the Chirchik and Angren rivers, and Samarkand and Bukhara by the Zeravshan.  In the southeast Uzbekistan curves up the slopes of the Tien Shan and the Pamir Alai mountain ranges. The bulk of the population and the richest farmlands are in the fertile valleys of this area. The central region consists of the Qarshi steppe.

There are 12 administrative regions called wiloyats of which one, called Karakalpakstan that makes up for about 37% of the country, is an autonomous republic.

There are about 40,000 species of flora and fauna in Uzbekistan. 500,000 hectares of the country’s land is protected under wildlife sanctuaries and natural reserves. A variety of rare species inhabit Uzbekistan: on its rocky mountain slopes there is the endangered Marchor or mountain goat, the Saiga deer inhabits the steppes and the Goitred Gazelle is found in arid desert and semi-desert areas.  There are more than 11,000 types of flora in Uzbekistan including the rare tulipa carinata, the ffritillaria, and the shaffron, which is the world’s most expensive spice.