FACTS

Location: Central Asia, north of Afghanistan

Area (only Total) total: 447,400 sq km

Climate: mostly midlatitude desert, long, hot summers, mild winters; semiarid grassland in east

Terrain: mostly flat-to-rolling sandy desert with dunes; broad, flat intensely irrigated river valleys along course of Amu Darya, Syr Darya (Sirdaryo), and Zarafshon; Fergana Valley in east surrounded by mountainous Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan; shrinking Aral Sea in west

Population: 28,268,440 (July 2008 est.)

Main Language (only first): Uzbek

Government type: republic; authoritarian presidential rule, with little power outside the executive branch

Capital (Name): Tashkent (Toshkent)

Capital (Time Difference): UTC+5

Independence: 1 September 1991 (from Soviet Union)

National holiday: Independence Day, 1 September (1991)

HOLIDAYS

January 1 New Year's Day*

March 8 Women's Day*

March 20 Prophet's Birthday

March 21 Noruz (date depends on vernal equinox)

May 1 International Labour Day*

May 9 Day of Memory and Respect

September 1 Independence Day

October 1 Eid al Fitr (End of Ramadan)

November 18 Flag Day

December 8 Constitution Day

December 20 Kurban Khait

*Former Soviet holidays. May not be observed.