[3] It is situated on both banks of the river Naryn (one of the main headwaters of the Syr Darya), which cuts a picturesque gorge through the town.

Naryn was established as a fortress on the important caravan route between Kashgar and Zhetysu (Semirechye) at the direction of the first Governor-General of Russian Turkestan Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufmann in 1868.

The university was founded in 2000 by the governments of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan, and His Highness the Aga Khan.

Undergraduate classes at the University of Central Asia’s (UCA) Naryn, Kyrgyz Republic campus commenced on 5 September 2016.

[1] The economy of the Province is dominated by animal husbandry such as horse, sheep and yak, and wool and meat being the main products.