Walk on the Astana - capital of Kazakhstan

• Walk on the Astana - capital of Kazakhstan

Welcome to Dubai in Kazakh!

December 10, 1997 President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev has received the final decision to move the capital to Akmola, renamed six months later in Astana. The most frequently voiced following official reason for transferring the capital Alma-Ata is geographically located in the extreme south-east of the country; by virtue of the provisions of the Piedmont, it has already exhausted the possibilities for further development; it is quite dangerous in seismic terms; its further growth in environmentally dangerous. Astana is positioned as a great location in the center of the republic, although in fact it is located in the Northern Kazakhstan.

Walk on the Astana - capital of Kazakhstan

After gaining capital status and organization of the special economic zone "Astana - new city", which is experiencing an unprecedented rapid growth for the CIS the city has become the second largest in the country and there is implemented a lot of modern architectural and urban planning projects.

From the history of Astana:

Location city locations - strategically caravan routes crossing point, since ancient times attracted the inhabitants of the steppes. Archaeologists find artifacts in the city, dating from the Bronze Age, Early Iron Age and the Middle Ages. Immediately the city was founded in 1830 as a Cossack outpost, primordial status - order (Akmola). In 1961 Akmola was renamed into Tselinograd as a center for the development of the All-Union North Kazakhstan and South Siberian virgin land. A year later, the name was changed to Akmola. Astana is leading in the country in terms of construction. One fifth of all residential real estate in Kazakhstan in 2009 was accounted for Astana city commissioned. For more than five years, the city is in the lead on volume of residential buildings put into operation.

The water-green boulevard.

The population increased from 270 thousand. People in 1996 to 700 thousand. In 2011. However, while I was walking through the main streets in the fresh frosty morning, on the streets was not a single person.

A view of the Round Square and the building of "KazMunaiGas" National Oil Company.

The volume of proved reserves Kazakhstan oil BP data is 3, 2% of the world reserves. By 2015 it is planned to increase oil production to 150 million tons per year, resulting in Kazakhstan will enter the top ten largest oil producing countries in the world. The main source of the country's budget revenue is export of crude oil and petroleum products. The transit of Kazakh oil exports passes mainly through Russia.

In the streets clean and tidy. Everywhere there are beautiful and neat lampposts.

I'm not an architect, so I will describe only our sensations. Astana has beautiful interesting building, but they are few. For example, this residential complex "On the Water-Green Boulevard". In the main the same weight all the buildings of Astana - it is tasteless box. Just as we have in Russia. Them, I tried not to take pictures.

The monument "Baiterek". The project's author - well-known British architect Norman Foster. The height of the structures is 97 meters, with a ball crowning structure - 105 meters.

The residential complex "Northern Lights" won the International Association of the Union of Architects.

In addition to the geographical reasons for the transfer, in the press and analysts, there were other, ethno-demographic reasons for the transfer of the capital, are rarely voiced by the authorities of the republic.

In the early 1990s, proclaimed the sovereignty of the republic actively emigrated Russian and other Russian-speaking population. Emigration took off part of the growing inter-ethnic tensions in the Kazakh society, but the risk of secession of predominantly Russian-speaking North-Eastern Kazakhstan maintained. While the number of rural Kazakh population, as well as mobility and migration within the country, continued to grow, despite the fact that Alma-Ata was already physically unable to accommodate all internal migrants. In these circumstances, the authorities sought to redirect flows of Kazakh villagers in the town with great prospects for growth and quickly derusifitsirovat predominantly Russian-speaking northern region.

"Emerald quarter".

The administrative and technological complex "Transport Tower". Skyscrapers in Astana a little and they are concentrated in one place. As Moscow-City. Just build in Kazakhstan is much faster.

Shopping and entertainment center "Khan Shatyr" ( "Khan's Tent") - one of the most ambitious projects in Astana.

Astana reminds me of a stripped-down copy of Dubai. High luminous skyscrapers on the background of the desert. Here, instead of desert - steppe, and winter temperatures can drop to -50º.