Astana's Eccentric Architecture
We came to Astana for it’s famed bonkers architecture……and we weren’t disappointed.
After the train journey from hell, the short 4 hour hop from Karaganda to Astana was a breeze. Once we’d completed the necessary sprint down the full length of the platform, in the midday heat, with heavy bags due to the only platform access being in front of the engine and our carriage being number 21 at the very back.
Astana only became the capital of Kazakhstan in 1997 and has since morphed from a small city into a massive sprawl of skyscrapers and futuristic architecture slap bang in the middle of nowhere. Nothing around it but empty steppe for hundreds of miles and a whopping 16 hour train journey from the previous capital of Almaty in the south.
In creating this brand new city, it would appear they advertised for architects with the remit to design anything they wanted providing is was big, weird and glitzy. The ensuing bizarre mis-match of bonkersness has subsequently been built on a 6km pedestrianised route down the centre of Astana. Everything is perfectly aligned with all views symmetrical and with the result that it actually somehow works. Around this perfect centre, construction is going on everywhere, the whole city is a building site, with hundreds of fancy new apartment blocks being created at every turn – who knows where all the people will come from to live here?
We were staying on the top floor of one fancy new apartment block with views across the city (albeit between several other fancy apartment blocks) and were very close to a huge lopsided tent-like structure, a nod to the traditional Kazakh yurt, which houses a designer shopping centre. It also has a beach on the top floor with sand imported from the Maldives complete with resident dinosaurs, naturally. We saw several small children excitedly rushing past wearing colourful rubber rings around their waists ready for a day at ‘the beach’. Kazakhstan’s only beach is at the Caspian Sea and that’s about 2000km away so I guess this is probably their best option.
We wandered through Lovers’ Park with its Romeo & Juliet statue, under the high archway of a curved, glass structure that provided a perfect frame for the tent and then on past manicured gardens dotted with statues representing Kazakh traditions; camels, shanyraks, eagle hunting, horse riding. Beautiful statues but small and insignificant next to the towering glass edifices dominating the view.
Further down stands the Bayterek tower, the symbol of Astana. A 105m tall tower of white criss-crossed steel topped with a huge golden globe meant to embody the tree of life on which was laid a golden egg, it can be seen from all points across the city. Very impressive from the outside, not so much inside, all nasty reflective gold glass and rotund and pushy Kazakh matrons.
The arrow straight Nurzhol Boulevard continues on to the Ak Orda Presidential Palace, with its massive blue dome looming over the tops of the surrounding trees. It looks out over the Ishim river that snakes through the centre of Astana and across to the Palace of Peace and Harmony, a large silver and blue glass pyramid. The sun gleams off the pyramid’s polished sides, but up close the bling and glamour has already started to fade and rust. Age the enemy of youthful glamour.
At the end (or should that be the start) of this aligned avenue of glossy structures is Independence Square, a perfectly symmetrical show of sleek white marble and yet more unique architectural constructions. The Kazak Eli Monument rises needle-like in the centre backed by a sweeping colonnade of carved arches which nicely frame the pyramid of harmony. Behind is the beautiful Wall of Peace built to commemorative the closing of nuclear testing sites in the country. A gently curved granite wall that transforms into a floating petal. The square is flanked on one side by the squat blue glass of the Palace of Independence, looking much like a greenhouse someone has sat on, and on the other by the matching blue saucer of the Shabyt Palace of Creativity.
As night falls and the sun’s rays dim, the multi-coloured floodlights bathe the shiny structures in a fluorescent rainbow under the dark night sky. This is when the city looks it’s best. The construction cranes and rubble disappear and all you can see are glittering golden lights punctuated by the changing colours of neon pink, blue and green as landmarks illuminate the skyline.
Around the city we also encountered the (not) Singing Fountain, though the pedestrian crossings did sing – opera while you wait for the green smiley face. A 5-storey tall stone boiled egg in a stone arched eggcup. A sunshine yellow skyscraper that looked like it had been built from giant Lego bricks. A giant spotlight. An up-ended 20m long concrete jug. Topiary trees shaped as camels and horses galloping alongside the 12 lane highway. A very elegant white wavy latticework pedestrian bridge crossing the Ishim to a riverfront parade of Scandinavian style brick houses. A statue of the Beatles, John Lennon looking very lost wondering what he was doing in Astana and why he was only 2/3rds his normal height.
Alongside this weirdness are many wonderful sculptures of a much more serious nature but for some reason these are tucked away from the showy public face of Astana in the older and much more normal, less glamorous suburbs. The intertwined figures of the People’s Friendship monument stood amidst shallow pools where kids were happily splashing around dressed in their pants, and in an unfortunate position on a busy road junction and surrounded by ugly 60’s faded tower blocks was the emotively haunting Monument to the Victims of Famine, a graphic depiction of the Asharshylyk in the 1930s where around 2 million Kazakhs died. Surely a monument that deserves a more prominent and tranquil setting.
After two hot and sweaty days of walking around this large, strange city we rewarded ourselves at the Line Brew brewery with a few pints of very decent craft beer and juicy steak followed by a visit to a fabulous local cafe for the best almond croissants ever, warm gooey oozing nutty marzipan. Bliss. Happy. And just slightly inebriated.
Astana was as bonkers as we’d hoped, though, I think very much style over substance, like unwrapping the most exquisitely wrapped chocolate only to find a centre of synthetic Turkish delight. But we really enjoyed it.
Now for the overnight train back to Almaty……first class this time. Luxury (of sorts)……
Helen (24th July 2025)
Looks lovely, lots of amazing architecture
So much more interesting than your standard city and definitely the industrial ones……