Baiterek Tower is one example of the futuristic architecture in the newborn city. Nicknamed "Chupa Chups" by the locals due to its similarity to a giant lollipop, this 97 meter high building offers a great view of the city as well as an art gallery, an aquarium and a restaurant. In the center of the top sphere, the ever so humble President Nazarbayev has made a golden palm print where visitors may put their own hands.
Khan Shatyry is a giant transparent tent big enough to hold 10,000 people. The 150m-high tent has a 200m elliptical base covering an area larger than 10 football stadiums, and contains a park, a shopping and entertainment area with squares and cobbled streets, a boating river, minigolf and an indoor beach resort. It even contains its own monorail with several stops. While Astana is one of the world's coldest capitals with temperatures down to -40°C in the cold season, the transparent material lets sunshine in and helps to keep temperatures comfortable all year.
The President's Museum of Kazakhstan, Barayev 3, is built like a yurt with a dome resembling a mosque. It contains exhibitions about the history of the country. The main attraction is a replica of the Golden Man costume, a warrior's suit that was found in a tomb east of Almaty. It contains more than 4000 gold pieces, and the original was considered too fragile to be put on display (it is now kept safe in the national bank).
Atameken Map of Kazakhstan is an outdoor museum giving you an overview of the entire country in a miniature version. This 1.7-hectare exhibit features more than 200 mock-up pieces, creating Kazakh cities and historical memorials. During the summer months at least, there are normally English speaking guides available (optional obviously), should you wish to learn a little about the models, and there is a covered section which focuses on the newer constructions within the city of Astana itself. Taking photos sometimes requires an extra payment to be made - you may want to keep cameras in your bag until you pass out of sight of the front ticket office.
Palace of Peace and Reconciliation. The pyramid portion of the building is 62m high and sits on a 15m high earth-covered block. All of this construction is above ground level. The building holds a summit of all religions of the world every 2-3 years. Though the landscaping of the park rises up to cover the lower levels, these are not in fact basements. This building offers a great view of the city as well as two art galleries, a archeological and ethnographic museum, opera hall, and a cafe.
Duman, . An entertainment complex consisting of an oceanarium, 3D theatre, dome area, souvenir shops and cafes. The aquarium is unique for being located over 3,000 km away from the ocean! It has more than 2000 sea inhabitants, the representatives of 100 species of sea fauna from different parts of the world. You can also see "Mermaid" and sharks-feeding shows at the aquarium. In the Motion Theatre you can make an underwater trip under the command of captain Mac-Cloud during the World War II, to overcome the traps while rescuing the gorgeous princess, confined in the dungeon, go on a tour to the past to dinosaur age, escorted by a troll and etc.
The dome area contains symbols from all over the world like the Statue of Liberty, the fragment of the great Chinese wall, the "Doriphor" statue, Parthenon and others.
Kazakh Eli monument. Kazakh Eli (literally, "Land of Kazakhs") is situated next to Pyramid (Palace of Peace) and has a small statue of the first president of the Republic of Kazakhstan. It is about 100 metres tall and has a mythlogical golden bird Samryk on the top. Monument is made from white marble and surrounded by very beautiful fountains.
Shabyt Palace. Shabyt is a palace of arts situated to the right of Kazakh Eli monument. It is a dish like building made from glass.
Palace of Independence. Palace of Independence is situated to the left of Kazakh Eli monument.
Most of political and business gatherings are held in this palace. Summit of OSCE (Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe) will take place on 1-2 December, 2010 in this building inviting about 56 countries is called to be one of the largest gatherings of heads of the states (bigger than Washington Nuclear Summit). Summits concerning ecology in Asia was held in october 2010 and European ecology summit for the first time will take place outside of Europe in 2011.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Astana
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Astana - updated May 2024
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Astana Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
