A kazan, qazan,qozon, qazghan or ghazan (Azerbaijani: qazan, pronounced [gɑzɑn]; Uzbek: qozon,Uyghur: قازان pronounced [qɒzɒ́n]; Kazakh: қазан [qɑzɑ́n]; Kyrgyz: казан [qɑzɑ́n]; Turkish: kazan; Armenian: ղազան pronounced [ɣɑzɑn] Russian: казан; Serbian: казан / kazan, Romanian: cazan; Albanian: kazan), is a type of large cooking pot used throughout Central Asia, Russia, and the Balkan Peninsula, roughly equivalent to a cauldron, boiler, or Dutch oven. They come in a variety of sizes (small modern cooking pots are sometimes referred to as kazans), and are often measured by their capacity, such as "a 50-litre kazan". Usually their diameter is half a meter. Kazans are made of cast iron or in modern times aluminum and are used to cook a wide variety of foods, including plov (pilaf), sumalak, shorpa, kesme, and bawyrsaq, and as such are an important element in celebrations when food must be prepared for large numbers of guests.