Baikonur or Baiqoñyr is a small mining town in central
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...
near
Jezkazgan
Zhezkazgan, or Jezkazgan ( ) is a city and the administrative centre of Ulytau Region, Kazakhstan. Population: Its urban area includes the neighbouring mining town of Satbayev (city), Satpayev, for a total city population of 148,700.
55% of ...
. Coal mining began in 1914.
In 1961, the name was appropriated for the
Baikonur Cosmodrome
The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian Human spaceflight, crewed spaceflights are l ...
about 320 kilometres southwest of the older mining town; some sources state this was done in order to keep the actual location of the cosmodrome secret.
Leninsk, the town built to support the cosmodrome, was renamed
Baikonur
Baikonur ( ; ) is a city in Kazakhstan on the northern bank of the Syr Darya river. It is currently leased and administered by the Russian Federation as an enclave until 2050. It was constructed to serve the Baikonur Cosmodrome with adminis ...
in 1995 after the fall of the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
.
Geography
The River
Baiqoñyr flows by the village.
[{{cite web, url=https://maps.vlasenko.net/smtm1000/l-42.jpg, title=L-42 Topographic Chart (in Russian), access-date=9 September 2022]
References
Populated places in Kazakhstan