Here is the presidential palace and Baiterek Tower, one of the national symbols of Kazakhstan. I didn’t make it up myself, but there is an observation deck inside the tower if you take the long elevator ride up. Astana is the capital of Kazakhstan, and when I visited it felt like a brand new city in the middle of an enormous economic and construction boom.
Islam is the largest religion in Kazakhstan. When I rented a car here, it actually had an Islamic prayer hanging from the rear-view mirror. I saw plenty of Russians in the country though with Christian crosses around their necks or hanging from their rear-view mirrors. The economic boom was also changing the religious architecture of the capital, with several enormous new mosques being built. Above are two of the city’s major mosques. This was another one of those times where I planned to return later for better photos but never made it. I also regret not going inside, as some images I later saw made the interiors look really beautiful.
For those of you who may have watched Borat and have a distorted image of what Kazakhstan and its people actually look like, here are two photos for you above. Kazakhstan is a diverse country, with ethnic Kazakhs making up the largest group alongside a large Russian population and numerous other ethnic communities. Most of the women I saw did not cover their hair, but some Muslim women did, including the woman photographed above. Clothing in Astana was generally no different from what you’d expect in any modern city, ranging from casual clothes to suits and more traditional styles.
I think these two photos above do a much better job of showing what everyday life in Astana looked like when I visited.
When I visited Astana, the downtown areas were mostly finished in regards to construction. Along some of the southern suburbs though, they were building dozens of buildings. I was in Dubai during their construction boom but I don’t remember seeing anything close to the number of projects I saw here. I rented a car and drove by block after block of high-rise buildings being built. There was so much construction going on that I seriously wondered if they would ever be able to fill all this commercial and residential space with tenants. It seemed to me Astana was being expanded on the philosophy, if we build it they will come.
The large building above belongs to Kazakhstan’s national oil and gas industry, which has played a major role in the country’s economic growth. Astana seemed determined to spend some of that new wealth building one of the most modern capitals in Central Asia, including plenty of eccentric architecture like this giant UFO-looking building. The oil and gas industry also brings plenty of foreigners into Kazakhstan. Usually when I had a conversation with a local they assumed I was there for business and were surprised once I said I was simply traveling.
Above are some of Astana’s new and finished buildings near the city center. I’m not sure what they’re all used for, but I know for sure the ones in the center are apartments since that’s where I stayed. I booked my room online before arriving and for some reason thought I was staying in a normal hotel, but when I got to Astana I couldn’t find it anywhere. I met some Kazakh kids who told me they were members of a local band and made it their mission to get me to my place. They walked around asking people until finally we discovered that someone was simply renting out a room in their apartment up on the 22nd floor.
The views from my apartment were pretty amazing. I took these two photos around 10 PM after the sun had finally set. I had meant to go take some great night shots of the presidential palace, the mosques, and some other famous places, but with some bad jet lag I wasn’t able to drag myself out of my room after 10 PM. I did wake up around 4 AM and even started driving to those places, but because I was so far north the sun had already started rising and all the lights were turned off!
This giant pyramid is known as the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation. I tried to go to the national museum in Astana but it was closed, so I came here next thinking this was another museum. It’s more of an exhibition and event center that offers tours than a traditional museum, but it’s definitely worth the visit. There are several floors with different things on display, including exhibits representing the many ethnic groups that live throughout Kazakhstan.
One of the floors has a large opera hall and theater. Higher up, the pyramid opens into a large room where you can look straight up toward the very top. There was some type of traditional dancing going on here that I was able to watch. During a break the dancers were happy to let me take their photo. Above this room are some stairs that follow the edge of the pyramid toward the final room. From here looking down I could still see them continuing their dancing.
These last two photos of the Palace of Peace show the lower part of the pyramid and the final room at the very top. There are some great views of the presidential palace from here along with the rest of Astana. The doves covering the windows are meant to represent the different peoples of Kazakhstan.
Another famous building in Astana is Khan Shatyr. The building is essentially an enormous futuristic tent hundreds of feet high. Once you get inside, it’s basically a giant multi-floor shopping and entertainment complex. A local told me Astana can see temperatures around 40 degrees below zero in the winter, so I can imagine Khan Shatyr being a great place to go and escape the brutal winter weather.
Khan Shatyr’s lower floors mostly had clothing stores like these photographed above. You could find plenty of western clothes and there was even a traditional clothing store as well. There is also a mix of restaurants here, ranging from nicer sit-down places to several American fast food chains.
A place I would definitely not miss out on is the Duman Entertainment Complex. This is another large building that’s almost like a small indoor amusement park. The place I wanted to visit most was the aquarium. Astana is about as far from the ocean as you can imagine, which makes finding a large aquarium here pretty strange. Above is the tunnel aquarium and a large shark about the same size as me. The aquarium also has turtles, tropical reefs, and plenty of other exotic fish.
Outside the aquarium there is sort of a reptile house, arcades, and other forms of entertainment. This talking tree in one of the hallways got my attention when I passed by. It’s exactly the type of random thing I wasn’t expecting to find while traveling through Kazakhstan.
Much of the modern downtown is concentrated around the southern side of the river. After I crossed the bridge photographed above, the neighborhoods were still pretty nice and on the upscale side at first, but eventually I reached some much older and rougher parts of the city. Above is a man buying some food from a small restaurant in northern Astana. Below are some of the more beat up neighborhoods that I came across.
