There is a perfectly circular zone in Kazakhstan, part of the Admin 0 – Countries shape files, that as far as I can tell contains nothing in particular. Please can someone explain it, my client is asking and now i’m intrigued too. Is it a copy protection thing?
I’ve found the answer to my own question, its the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which is leased to russia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baikonur_Cosmodrome
Yep, you got it! If you’re looking for Kaz. without the Baikonur, check out the Sovereignty areas instead (but likely just patch that single country as everything else will shift).
https://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/10m-cultural-vectors/10m-admin-0-details/
.
