Al-Aksa gorge near Bishkek. Credit

Kyrgyzstan is a country in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, it borders Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and the People's Republic of China to the southeast. Kyrgyzstan means the "Land of the Kyrgyz". The country is also occasionally and poetically referred to as "the Switzerland of Central Asia".