Once an obscure township on Kazakhstan’s wolf-plagued plains, Astana has outgrown its teen years and is now firmly established as the country’s capital city.
Rising From The Steppe: Kazakhstan’s Capital Turns 20
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The official reason to relocate the capital from Almaty (pictured) was to avoid the earthquakes that rattle the town and to help spread wealth more evenly across the country. Many noted that Nazarbaev was also able to leave his political opposition behind as his government headed north to Astana.
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The Nur-Astana Mosque. Few expenses were spared as architects from around the world were flown into Astana to raise what looked like a kind of Asian Las Vegas from the steppe.
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The giant Khan Shatyr or “Royal Marquee.”
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Inside the Khan Shatyr, an artificial beach stocked with sand from the Maldives awaits paying bathers. The extravagance of the new structures caused controversy in a country where the average annual household income around the time of Astana’s construction was less than $600.