DID YOU KNOW: Uzbekistan is one of only two doubly landlocked countries on Earth.
DID YOU KNOW: Uzbekistan is one of only two doubly landlocked countries on Earth.
It has no coastline, and neither does any country around it. Uzbekistan, in Central Asia, is bordered by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, all landlocked themselves. That means reaching the open sea takes crossing at least two international borders.
The other doubly landlocked country is tiny Liechtenstein in Europe. Uzbekistan, a Silk Road heartland of Samarkand and Bukhara, turned that isolation into a strength: for centuries its cities thrived as the crossroads where East met West, because every route passed through.