Zhympity

Zhympity lies in the open steppe east of the Ural, in the country where Kazakh herders moved between seasonal pastures. Streams and shallow hollows interrupt the dry grasslands of the northern Caspian lowland. In the eighteenth century the lands of the Lesser Zhuz lay between the expanding Russian frontier and the wider Kazakh steppe. The later settlement of Zhympity arose in this pastoral landscape, long after the routes and grazing grounds had acquired their importance.