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
13
The Baiterek Tower, representing a Kazakh folktale about a bird that lays a golden egg in the branches of a poplar tree.
14
The sphere built for the 2017 World Expo, which Astana hosted. The U.S.-based Foreign Policy magazine had its website briefly blocked in Kazakhstan after calling the building the “Death Star.”
15
Among the biggest challenges for people relocating to Astana were the brutal winters -- only Mongolia’s capital, Ulan Bator, is colder -- and the winds that drive in across the plains.
16
The answer to the city’s freezing winds was trees -- millions of them, to be planted in a “green ring” around the city.