The largest steppe landscape in the world, the Great Steppe, stretches from Eastern Europe to East Asia across the Eurasian continent. In its centre lies Kazakhstan - a country with a rich history, about which, however, very little is known. It was shaped by the nomadic peoples typical of the steppe - Saka, Huns, Turks, and Mongolians - and dates back to prehistory, some 2.5 million years ago.

This opulent volume provides insight into the history and culture of the Great Steppe and Kazakhstan by documenting everything from the prehistory, the protohistory, the invasion by Genghis Khan, the Arab-Islamic period, the integration into the USSR, and the most recent epoch of growing national consciousness in an independent state. The impressive pictures are accompanied by excerpts from the book In the Stream of History by the first president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, who led the country for over thirty years.