Turkestan, also spelled Turkistan (literally "land of the Turks" in Persian), refers to a historical region in Central Asia between Siberia to the north; Iran, Afghanistan, and Tibet to the south; the Caspian Sea to the west; and the Gobi Desert to the east.
Turkestan includes present-day Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uyghuristan (currently the Xinjiang autonomous region of China), and Uzbekistan. Sometimes, parts of northern Afghanistan (also known as Afghan Turkestan) are also included in the region.
