What a cold and snowy day it was our last day in Astana and also in Kazakhstan and also in Central Asia before moving on to Spain in the morning to begin the next part of our four-plus month trip. As I wrote in the other posts about Astana, the new capital of the country, the city has quickly become a showpiece for 21st century Kazakhstan with landmark buildings, many by leading international architects, sprouting up each year. The city is scheduled to go on rising and spreading until 2030 even though it has already reached its targeted population goal. We had already seen several very impressive buildings the day before and today we hoped to see the others along the pedestrian thoroughfare known as Millennium Alley that is due to be 20 kms long by 2030.
On our bus ride into the new city, we passed some very striking buildings although the gray skies, traffic and lights don't do them justice!
More very intriguing sculptures in my mind:
Ak Orda, the Palace of the President, was built in just three years and was opened in 2004. I found it very interesting that in a country with no monarchy, the country's leader has chosen to identify some of the most significant buildings as 'palaces.' The previous day, we'd visited as you may recall the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation and the Palace of Independence.
The bus attendant collected the fares and issued a receipt from a machine near the driver if passengers didn’t have a bus pass. The fare was only 190 tengue or just .45 each. I was impressed how the bus attendant was able to to remember who got on at each stop so she could collect their fare even though people got on at three different places on the bus. Never did I notice one of the attendants ask to double check a passenger's ticket to verify that he or she hadn't just gotten on!
On our bus ride into the new city, we passed some very striking buildings although the gray skies, traffic and lights don't do them justice!
Once off the bus, our first goal was Khan Shatyr, a 150-meter high, translucent, tent-like structure that was made by noted British architect Norman Foster with a heat-absorbing material that produces summer temperatures inside even when it's minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit! Foster was also the brains behind the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation pyramid-shaped building we'd toured the day before. The building, known as the Royal Marquee in English, looked very much like the terminal at Denver International Airport!
When the 'lifestyle center with world class shopping' complex was opened on the 70th birthday of Kazakh President Nazarbayev in July of 2010, Andrea Bocelli gave a concert that was attended by the presidents of Russia, Turkey and most of the former Soviet Union as well as the King of Jordan and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi!
Across from the entertainment complex was the headquarters of KazMunayGaz, the state-owned gas and oil company founded in 2002. Through its arch we could just detect Bayterek Monument. More on that later in this post.
Seeing the vastness and all the entertainment options of the multi-level Khan Shatyr took my breath away. Yes, it looked like a shopping mall like we'd seen already the world over at first glance. But when we took a few minutes to look further, we noticed a boating river, mini golf and the biggest entertainment area for kids we'd ever seen in a mall.
I noticed there even was a coat check in the mall as the temperature inside was a warm 75 degrees. The building was designed so it could maintain an internal temperature of 59-86 degrees in the main space while the outside temperature could vary from -31 to 95!
We almost felt right 'at home' seeing the Plov and Doner House as we'd loved eating plov, Uzbekistan's national rice and meat dish, when we'd just recently toured most of that country.
The dinosaur park
and other attractions for kids seemed to have few takers the day we were there.
Perhaps the strangest part of the mall was the beach with palm trees and pools on the top floor! An employee at the mall's Sky Beach Club kindly took these pictures for me so I wouldn't have to pay to enter for ten minutes just to take the pictures.
I read that the artificial beach, with sand specially imported from the Maldives, required a constant 35C. I wonder if any other shopping centers have a beach!
Khan Shatyr is the beginning of Millennium Alley that I mentioned earlier. From there, we walked down the pedestrian thoroughfare for the next few hours taking in the fantastic sights along the way.
I must have really liked this building as I took about six pictures of it but never took the time to figure out what it was - sorry about that!
No idea about what was behind the grassy-looking teapot and cup!
We were used to seeing, and generally admiring, unusual sculptures but this sewing machine one may just about taken the cake that day!
Standing in the middle of the arch of the Kaz Oil building, we were greeted with the sight of more striking buildings just ahead.
Not far ahead beyond the trees and the thingamajig we walked through, was the four minaret Nur Astana Mosque that opened in 2005. This beautiful white and gold mosque is said to be the third largest in Central Asia. Even though it was still only under twenty years old, it was no longer the biggest mosque in town. It was dwarfed by the Hazrat Sultan Mosque that we were only able to see from the outside yesterday.
I was allowed to enter after wearing a green hooded robe so that I was covered from head to toe. Think Lil Red (or Green!) Hiding Hood!
Given it was in the new capital city of Astana, the prayer hall was of course large. Fortunately, the decor was calming and serene and it was warm inside which was essential that afternoon! Overall the mosque was more impressive from the outside than the inside, though.
There are several large mosques in Astana, but also churches and synagogues. The baby-blue Beit Rachel Synagogue is the largest in Central Asia. I read that with the threat of militant Islam on Kazakhstan's southern border, healthy ecumenical relations are not just a communal nicety, they are a strategic necessity.
Another spectacular building I so wish I had figured out what it was when we were there.
One of the features I really liked about our walk was the many plazas that would have been perfect to sit and admire the dazzling architecture if the weather had cooperated!
A photo looking back from where we'd come:
For some reason, there were sculptures of endangered animals along the pedestrian pathway.
These three light-green apartment buildings with the wavy sides were called the Northern Lights. I had never viewed anything like that before!
Opposite the apartment buildings were the Emerald Towers, office towers whose tops splayed outward like the pages of opening books, as described by Lonely Planet.
In the center ahead on Millennium Alley was Bayterek Tower, a white latticed, almost 300-foot-high tower crowned by a large golden glass orb. This embodied a Kazakh legend in which the mythical bird, Samruk, lays a golden egg containing the secrets of human desires and happiness in a tall poplar tree, just out of reach.
Steven spotted a Mickey D's sign on the side of this building so we hightailed it inside to warm up in the gargantuan food court before facing the chill and snow again outside.
The egg-shaped National Archives was another unusual building in a city full of unusual buildings!
All over Astana were these smiley symbols!
At last, we reached the Bayterek Tower that we'd been walking to for what seemed like forever.
A look back at some of the buildings we walked past and had admired so much. As I noted earlier, so many of the new buildings in the new capital were a turquoise color which is the main color in the country's flag. Even on a dreary day, they still looked very appealing.
The two towers of Parliament, the Senate and Assembly, were behind the House of Ministries.
It was a mixture of relief and sadness to finally reach the end of our tour of the new Astana after having begun our exploration of this part of the new capital a few hours previously at Khan Shatyr: relief because it meant soon we could escape from the cold, and sadness because we had come to an end of discovering what was in effect a brand new city.
The Astana bus stops were all electronic with the times listed for the upcoming buses just like at metro stations in other cities. The buses didn’t come as often as the subway did in other cities but we never needed to transfer to a second bus to get to where we wanted to in the city that was so spread out.
Luckily
in the cold weather, we hadn’t had to wait long for a bus to take us very close
to the Russian Orthodox Assumption Cathedral located in the old part of Astana.
As seemed to be our pattern of late, we had difficulty finding the front of the cathedral!
On the cathedral grounds were the school and offices associated with the cathedral.
OMG was all we could think of saying when we saw the interior of the cathedral even though there was not a service going on when we entered as there had been when we had visited the beautiful Russian Orthodox cathedral in Almaty recently.
Maps.me too us off the main streets and through an older section of the city to get to the bus stop for our ride back to the hotel. We didn’t mind as it enabled us to see another area of the city before it was the capital.
On our way back to the hotel, I wondered if our visits to both the mosque and Russian Orthodox Cathedral may have been our last ever as we’re not considering visiting places in the future where we’d likely see either. If so, that is sad as we have truly enjoyed our many visits to both places of religious worship while traveling overseas.
I am conflicted trying to sum up our visit to Kazakhstan that had started in the country's former capital of Almaty for just a day almost six weeks earlier before returning ten days ago to explore more of the huge country. Almaty was a contradiction for us - initially we weren't very impressed with what we saw because it looked like a provincial backwater. But, once we returned for a few more days, we were both very impressed with the Art Museum, the lovely parks, and its many interesting sculptures and monuments.
The city of Shymkent was disappointing except for its intriguing Independence Monument and Park. The nearby small city of Turkistan was of some interest because of its Yasui Mausoleum and ruins at Sauran.
As I am sure you can tell from this and the other posts on Astana, the innovative architecture, sculptures and public plazas in the new capital city wowed me. It's a city I would be interested in returning to in several years (in warmer weather!) to see how much of the master plan has been achieved even though it's already one of the most enjoyable and walkable cities I've been in.
Next post: Barcelona, Spain, here we come!
Posted on Thanksgiving, November 22, 2018, from Granada, Spain. Steven and I wish all our family and friends a very Happy Thanksgiving and want you to know we're so very thankful for your presence in our lives.
What interesting looking buildings! And so many of them in the colours of the flag. I hope you won't need to use that new shirt for the rest of your trip (because it will be warmer)! Travel safe! Hugs to both of you!
ReplyDeleteChristine, Glad you also admired the novel architecture in Astana. Wish I could say I haven't had to use the new shirt I bought but the weather has been generally cold and rainy ever since I bought it so it's come in very handy. I am so fed up with the rain!!
ReplyDelete