Nur-Sultan is the capital of Kazakhstan. The name was recently changed from Astana to Nur-Sultan in honor of the first president Nursultan Nazarbayev, who stepped down in March of 2019. Astana became the capital of Kazakhstan back in 1997 and has since become the home of many futuristic buildings due to Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa. Kurokawa was given the master plan in architectural design for the planned city in 1998 and is responsible for most of the interesting buildings you see here today. This was my second visit to Kazakhstan, the first was back in 2017 with a visit of the original capital Almaty. I loved Kazakstan during that visit and this one just further solidified my love of this off the beaten path destination.
It’s very easy to get around here, I used Yandex whenever I needed to get somewhere, (Yandex is from Russia and it’s similar to Uber) but overall Nur-Sultan is a very walkable city. I originally planned my visit to coincide with Capital City Day, a major holiday observed all over Kazakhstan, full of celebrations, concerts and a big fireworks display. However after I arrived I found out most of the normal celebrations, including the fireworks were cancelled this year due to recent explosions at an ammo depot in the city of Arys, in the Turkestan region of southern Kazakhstan. That’s ok, I still had an awesome visit.
The first place I visited is actually about 40km west of Nur-Sultan in the town of Akmol. The Alzhir Memorial, also known as the Akmol Labour Camp for Wives of Traitors of the Motherland was a former Stalinist prison camp for women who’s husbands were accused, often falsely of betraying the Soviet Union.
Stalin established this special gulag in the 1930’s to imprison women and sometimes even children, forcing them to produce clothes for Soviet soldiers during World War II. Weather conditions were pretty extreme with Summers often reaching over 100F and winters falling to 40F below zero, this harsh region gets the cold northern winds of Siberia.
On a brighter note, after my visit to Alzhir I went to the Astana Opera House and enjoyed a ballet performance of Don Quixote.
This place was incredible! The acoustics of the theatre are considered one of the best in the world. It holds 1250 seats making it the third biggest opera house in the world! It is often used as a performance center for the ballet troupe of Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre.
The Astana troupe were incredible! I had great balcony seats directly in the middle of the hall and my ticket was only about $10 USD! Highly recommend if you’re in Nur-Sultan. They have nightly performances.
After the ballet I walked all over the city admiring the architecture. First stop was Khan Shatyr. This giant monstrosity is actually a shopping mall. It stays pretty pleasant in there year round, a nice temperature to enjoy the artificial beach, with sand imported from the Maldives.
By this point it was time to get some dinner. I went to a place downtown called Saksaul, a delicious Kazakh restaurant. No trip to Kazakhstan is complete without some Beshbarmak! This is the national dish. It’s basically finely cut boiled horse meat on boiled noodles, spiced in an onion sauce. Served with mutton broth. It might sound a little weird to some of you who haven’t tried it but its actually quite good! And Saksaul really knows how to make some Beshbarmak!
The next place I stopped by were these strange curving residential towers. They are known as Northern Lights, they have a neon light show when its fully dark out, but also nice to see at sunset.
Bayterek Tower has become the symbol of Nur-Sultan and a symbol of post independence Kazakhstan. This strange tower is supposed to resemble a mythical egg in a mythical tree. It can be seen nearly anywhere in the city. It has an observer deck up top that was unfortunately closed when I was there.
The two golden towers mark the entrance to the Presidential Palace. This building looks like something out of a dystopian sci-fi novel, perhaps a Phillip K. Dick story? I absolutely loved it. It also marks the end of my night. I did manage to get up early the next day before my flight and see a few more sights though.
The first place I went to the next morning was the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation. Here’s another structure out of a sci-fi novel. This pyramid was built to host the Congress of World and Traditional Religions once every three years. They also had a movie festival in there a couple times.
Across the street from the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation a live concert of traditional Central Asian folk music was underway in celebration of Capital City Day. Just to the right of the concert is the Astana Palace of the Arts. AKA the Dog Bowl.
This building hosts a school of fine arts and premiers international fine arts competitions. Just to the right of the Dog Bowl is an incredible Mosque known as the Hazrat Sultan Mosque.
The Hazrat Sultan Mosque is the largest mosque in Kazakhstan. It regularly sees up to 10,000 worshipers. The interior tile work is incredible, especially on the main dome.
Well that was it for me. It was time to head over to Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport and catch my flight to New Delhi. Time for another adventure…
