Nur-Sultan

Astana is the capital of Kazakhstan, on the Ishim River in the steppe of the north of the country. Its name means capital in Kazakh, and in the late 2010s it was briefly renamed Nur-Sultan after Nursultan Nazarbayev, the first president, before the old name returned.

The Bayterek, a white tower holding a golden glass sphere, shows the Kazakh legend of a bird that laid a golden egg in the tree of life. Khan Shatyr, a giant transparent tent designed by Norman Foster, holds a shopping center, a park and an indoor beach under its roof. The Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, a glass and stone pyramid by the same architect, was built for meetings of the world's religious leaders. Astana Opera, opened in the 2010s, stages ballet and opera in a building with Italian marble halls. Nazarbayev University, founded in the same decade, teaches in English on a campus on the left bank.

The fort of Akmolinsk was built on the river by Siberian Cossacks in the 1830s and became a trading town on the caravan routes of the steppe. In the 1960s it was renamed Tselinograd as the center of the Virgin Lands campaign, which plowed the surrounding grasslands for wheat. After independence the government moved the capital here from Almaty in 1997, and the Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa drew up the master plan for a new city on the left bank of the river.

Kazatomprom, the national uranium company, has its head office in Astana and runs mines in the south of the country. KEGOC, the operator of the national power grid, is also based in the city.