Uzbekistan is the landlocked country that borders five other landlocked countries, more than any other nation. Its neighbors are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan, and none of those five countries has a coastline on an open sea.
This unusual geography also makes Uzbekistan one of only two doubly landlocked countries in the world. A doubly landlocked country is surrounded only by countries that are themselves landlocked; the other example is Liechtenstein. Uzbekistan became doubly landlocked after the political borders of Central Asia were established during the Soviet period.
Uzbekistan lies at the center of historic Central Asia and includes major Silk Road cities such as Samarkand and Bukhara. Kazakhstan is its longest international border, while Afghanistan lies to the south. The country is sometimes confused with Turkmenistan, which borders the Caspian Sea and is therefore not landlocked.