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Astana

Astana is one of the world's most audacious urban experiments — a gleaming capital rising from the steppes, designed from scratch and completed in just two decades. Glass towers and futuristic monuments pierce the endless horizon, while wide boulevards and geometric parks reflect a nation's ambition. The city pulses with the energy of a young capital still finding its voice, where ultra-modern architecture stands alongside the raw beauty of the surrounding landscape. What makes Astana worth the trip is precisely its strangeness and scale. Walk the Nur-Sultan Avenue at sunset, visit the soaring Bayterek monument for views across the city's bold geometry, or explore the Khan Shatyr — an enormous tent-like structure housing shops and restaurants. The steppes press in on all sides, reminding you how improbable this city is. It's worth experiencing for the sheer ambition on display and the chance to see how a nation reimagines itself.

CountryKazakhstan
RegionAstana
LanguageKK
CurrencyKZT
Where it is
Kazakhstan · Astana

Roughly where Astana sits.

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From the magazine

What we wrote about Astana

The map tells you where. These pieces tell you when to go, whether the place is for you, and what nobody mentions.

Read the Astana guideAstana has been the capital since 1997, and almost everything you see came after.
01When to go1
In Astana there are 93 degrees between the cold record and the heat record

The historical series runs from −51.6 degrees to 41.6. January's average high is −10.3 and July's 26.6, and the whole year's mean temperature is 3.9 degrees. In a climate like this there are no ordinary months: there is a short, very good summer, a very long winter and two three-week springs.

9 min
02Made for you1
Astana for anyone who wants to see a capital designed whole in one go

Almost every city we visit is the result of centuries of contradictory decisions. This one was decided almost at a stroke, from 1997 onwards, and so it can be read as a project: what was copied, what was invented and what scale was chosen when there was no obligation to continue anything.

9 min
03Worth knowing1
There are flamingos 130 kilometres from here, among the northernmost in the world

In a capital with five months of sub-zero highs, the most unexpected neighbour lies 130 kilometres to the southwest: a system of salt lakes where one of the planet's northernmost flamingo populations breeds. It has been a reserve since 1968, covers 543,171 hectares and has formed part of a World Heritage site since 2008.

7 min
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