Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
average
temperatures in Astana range be-
tween -11°C and -22°C, and bitter steppe
winds can make it feel colder still.
1
¨Sights¨&¨Activities
18
New City
o
Khan¨Shatyr¨
NOTABLE BUILDINg
(www.khanshatyr.com; Turan dangyly 37;
h
10am-
10pm;
c
)
Astana's most extraordinary
building (so far), the Khan Shatyr is a 150m-
high, translucent, tent-like structure made
of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE),
a heat-absorbing material that produces
summer temperatures inside even when it's
-30°C outside. Touted as a 'lifestyle centre
with world-class shopping', from outside it
resembles nothing so much as a drunkenly
leaning circus tent, while the multilevel in-
terior contains yet another shopping mall
and food court but also several other attrac-
tions for children and adults.
These include a drop tower, flume ride
and 500m-long monorail (admission for
all three: 1500T) and, on the top level, the
Sky¨Beach¨Club
(Khan shatyr, Turan 37; adult/
child mon-Fri 6000/3500T, Sat-Sun 8000/3500T,
tour 1500T;
h
10am-10pm)
with a big swim-
ming pool, sandy beach, palm trees and
water slide, where those who can afford it
can imagine they're on a tropical coast in
the middle of the Eurasian steppe. Opened
in 2010, the Khan Shatyr was designed by
celebrated British architect Norman Fos-
ter and marks, for the moment, the west-
ern end of the main axis of new Astana.
To its east, across a park, stands the grand
headquarters of the state energy company,
KazMunayGaz
(Kabanbay Batyr)
, with Nurzhol
bulvar beginning beyond it.
City¨Park¨
PARK
The large, somewhat untidy city park abuts
the south side of the Ishim River. On its
southern edge you'll find the
Atameken
(
%
22 16 36; admission 400T, English-language
tour 500T;
h
9am-9pm)
, a 200m-long, walk-
around country map with models of major
buildings, and
Duman
(
%
24 22 22; www.
duman.kz; oceanarium adult/child 1500/700T;
h
10am-10pm)
, an amusement centre most
worth visiting for its oceanarium, which
has over 2000 creatures from the world's
oceans and a 70m shark tunnel.
Nurzhol¨Bulvar
This central showpiece boulevard of Kaza-
khstan's new governmental and monumen-
tal zone is a 2km line of gardens and plazas
leading east from the KazMunayGaz build-
ing to the presidential palace and flanked
Astana
АСТАНА
%
7172 / POP 776,000 / ELEV 350M
The country's new capital has risen fast
from the northern steppe and is already a
showpiece for 21st-century Kazakhstan. It
is scheduled to go on rising and spreading
into a city of more than one million people
by 2030. Its skyline grows more fantastical
by the year as landmark buildings, many of
them by leading international architects,
sprout in a variety of Asian, Western, Soviet
and wacky futuristic styles. Several spectac-
ular structures are open to visitors and it's
hard not be impressed by the very concept
of the place.
Astana was just a medium-sized pro-
vincial city known for its bitter winters
when President Nazarbaev named it out
of the blue in 1994 as Kazakhstan's future
capital. It formally took over from Almaty
in 1997. The old centre north of the Ishim
(Yesil) River, known as the
'pravy bereg',
right bank, lives on as a commercial and
services centre. South of the river (the
'levy
bereg',
left bank), governmental and busi-
ness buildings are going up, and also cul-
tural, sports, leisure and shopping centres,
hotels, a university and eye-catching resi-
dential developments. Some have dubbed
Astana the 'Dubai of the steppe'.
The city began life in 1830 as a Russian
fortress called Akmola (Kazakh for 'white
tomb'). In the 1950s Akmola became the
headquarters of the Virgin Lands scheme
and in 1961 it was renamed Tselinograd
(Virgin Lands City). After the USSR
collapsed, Akmola got back its old
name. In 1998 it was renamed again, as
Astana - Kazakh for 'capital'. Reasons
cited by Nazarbaev for the change were
Astana's more central and less earthquake-
prone location than Almaty, and better
transport links with Russia. He may also
have wanted to head off secessionist senti-
ments among northern Kazakhstan's large
ethnic Russian population.
Some find Astana an impersonal place,
but Kazakhstan's ambitious and talented are
increasingly drawn here. It's easy to ques-
tion the spending of billions on prestige
architecture, but many citizens are clearly
proud of their new capital.
