Qyzylorda, also Kzyl-Orda, city in southern Kazakhstan, along the lower Syr Darya River, capital of Qyzylorda Province, and 1225 km (760 mi) west of the city of Almaty. Qyzylorda sits in the middle of an irrigated rice-growing area in the delta of the Syr Darya, 350 km (215 mi) from the receding shoreline of the Aral Sea. Because of the low average annual rainfall (110 mm/4.5 in), irrigated agriculture, including rice-growing and processing and fruit production, are major economic activities; the manufacture of farm machinery is also important. Unlike other desert areas of Central Asia, Qyzylorda is located too far north for successful cotton growing. It is located along a rail line completed in 1906 (called the Kazalinsk Line) linking Central Asia with the main west-east rail lines at Orenburg in central Russia, providing a direct route for cotton shipments to the northwest and grain and lumber to the south.
Qyzylorda was originally a far northwestern fortress of the Kokand (present-day Quqon) khanate (state), known as Ak-Mechet; it was taken by Russian forces in 1853 and renamed Perovsk. From 1925 to 1929, Qyzylorda served as the capital of Soviet Kazakhstan. Population (1991) 158,200.
