Astana – capital of Kazakhstan

Coat of arms

1961), has been the capital of Kazakhstan since 1997, and is the

country's second largest city (after Almaty, the former capital) with an officially estimated population of 775,800 as of 21 June 2012.[3] It is located in the north portion of Kazakhstan, within Akmola Province, though administrated separately from the province as a federal city area. The current mayor of Astana is Imangali Tasmagambetov. He was appointed on 4 April 2008.

Persian Astane (Persian: آستانه‎ means "sublime threshold", "royal porte" implying a royal capital

city or a holy shrine town, (from the Persian verb Istadan (ایستادن) 'to stand' (in respect)), and literally means "threshold" (royal or sacred, where people stand in respect or awe),[citation needed] implying where the court is seated (the capital city) or the body of a sacred person is interred (a shrine town). The city of Turkestan in Kazakhstan that hosts the body of the saint Ahmad Yasavi is also called the "astana" as is the city of Mashhad in Iran that is the burial place of the 8th Shiite Imam Reza. In fact, long before becoming the new capital of Kazakhstan, the city was "an astana", a burial ground of a saint, hence the old name of the city, Ak Mola (Ақмола), "white mausoleum".
In June 2008, a parliamentary proposal was put forward to change the city's name to "Nursultan", in honor of President Nursultan Nazarbayev. The idea was rejected by Nazarbayev himself, who said the decision of renaming the city will be for future generations.[4] Despite this,[5] some commentators think that the generic name Astana was deliberately chosen so that it would be renamed in honour of Nazarbayev after his death.

removed and replaced with totally new structures resulting in significant

construction work throughout the city. President Nazarbayev has paid particular attention to Astana's architecture; most of the recently completed structures had been accredited to internationally acclaimed architects and designers such as Kisho Kurokawa or Norman Foster.

2013 central Astana panorama: the domed building in the middle is the Ak Orda Presidential Palace. The wave-like building on the left is the Kazakhstan Central Concert Hall

legend behind this tower as a symbol is that it

represents a poplar tree, where the magic bird Samruk laid its egg. In the sphere on the top of Bayterek there is an imprint of president Nursultan Nazarbayev's hand. In front of the Bayterek Tower in summer 2010, the largest open-air art exhibition ever in Kazakhstan took place: About 2.2 million people saw the international exhibition of United Buddy Bears.[21]

Palace
Ak Orda (Kazakh, "the white horde") is the official workplace

of the President of Kazakhstan. Ak Orda Presidential Palace was built in 2004 of monolithic concrete as a five-story building. The lining was performed using Template:Convert/1 thick Italian marble. The height of the building is 80 metres (262 feet) and the total area is 36,720 square metres (395,251 square feet). Ak Orda includes a yurt-like hall designed of marble and granite, a marble hall for summits and official visits by foreign-country representatives, and a golden hall for negotiations and private discussions between the head of the state and the leaders of other countries

whole new city, designed by the late Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa.

The Astana Metro is a planned underground construction in Astana.
Astana Railway Station is an important hub for northern Kazakhstan, served by Qazaqstan Temir Zholy trains to most major cities in Kazakhstan, including Talgo expresses to Almaty. International trains leave for Russia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, most of them with a once a week frequency. Since the summer of 2008, the schedule systems show also a direct weekly train to Urumqi (in China's Xinjiang).[27]