Kazakhstan–Uzbekistan border

The central section of the boundary consists of a series of short straight line segments going roughly eastwards through the Kyzylkum Desert, down to the vicinity of Kazakhstan's Shardara Dam.

The border then follows a u-shape at Kazakhstan's Maktaaral District before proceeding in a roughly north-eastwards direction past Tashkent and then along the Ugam Range to the Kyrgyz tripoint.

Uzbekistan's Jizzakh to Sirdaryo railway crosses through Kazakhstan briefly, a legacy of the Soviet era where infrastructure was built without regard to what were then internal boundaries.

After the Communists took power in 1917 and created the Soviet Union it was decided to divide Central Asia into ethnically-based republics in a process known as National Territorial Delimitation (or NTD).

[2] Though indeed the Soviets were concerned at the possible threat of pan-Turkic nationalism,[3] as expressed for example with the Basmachi movement of the 1920s, closer analysis informed by the primary sources paints a much more nuanced picture than is commonly presented.

[10][11] The attempt to balance these contradictory aims within an overall nationalist framework proved exceedingly difficult and often impossible, resulting in the drawing of often tortuously convoluted borders, multiple enclaves and the unavoidable creation of large minorities who ended up living in the ‘wrong’ republic.

[15][16] The process was to be overseen by a Special Committee of the Central Asian Bureau, with three sub-committees for each of what were deemed to be the main nationalities of the region (Kazakhs, Turkmen and Uzbeks), with work then exceedingly rapidly.

[29][30] This oblast was larger than the modern autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan and extended considerably further eastwards, thereby cutting the Uzbek SSR in two, with a small exclave around Khiva.

Poor economic performance in the oblast convinced Soviet leaders that Karakalpakstan should be included directly the Russian SSR, a move formalised in 1930; it was upgraded to ASSR status in 1932.

In 1963, in accordance with the decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, an additional 36,600 square kilometers of territory was transferred from South Kazakhstan and Kyzylorda regions of Kazakh SSR.

An exchange of 517 hectares of mountainous pastures in the Bagys area for semi-desert lands near the villages of Nysan-1, Nysan-2, and Baimurat in the Kyzylorda Region helped finalize the agreement.