"Astana - Zhana Kala" a Astana Travel Page by tashka

I had only a couple of days to see Astana, and since it was a business trip, I was pretty busy. And still I was very impressed!

I had been to other cities of Kazakhstan and was happy to finally visit the new capital of the country.

Originally it was a fortress called Ishim, which was built in 1824. Later it grew into the town of Akmolinsk. During the Soviet period, in 1961 it was renamed Tselinograd. During those years the Soviet Union had the idea of developing the virgin lands of Kazakhstan and Tselinograd became the capital of the virgin lands region. In 1991, after the end of the Soviet era, Kazakhstan gained its independence, and the city was renamed into Aqmola. The capital of the new Republic of Kazakhstan was Almaty. In 1997 President Nazarbayev, the first and so far the only President of Kazakhstan, made a decision to move the capital to Aqmola renaming it into Astana.

The President and Parliament aproved the master plan of the city's development. In order to boost investments in the construction of Zhana Kala (the New City) the area of construction was announced to be a free economic zone.

Since that time the city has been developing at a very fast rate with huge amounts of investments flowing into it.

If you visit the city once every six months, each time you will be surprised to see more of new magnificent buildings, which are changing the face of the city, but not spoiling it, since everything is in accordance with the master plan.