- Formerly (until 1961):
- Akmolinsk
- (1961–92):
- Tselinograd
- (1992–98):
- Aqmola, and
- (2019–22):
- Nur-Sultan
Astana
What are the former names of Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan?
What is notable about Astana’s climate?
Who were the architects involved in Astana’s expansion?
News •
Astana, city, capital of Kazakhstan, located along the Ishim (Esıl) River. It lies in the sparsely populated north-central part of Kazakhstan and at the geographic center of the country’s habitable area. It was chosen as the capital in part to encourage development throughout the vast country and to spread growth beyond the southeast corner, where Almaty, the largest city, is located. With an average temperature of –8 °F (–22 °C) at the peak of winter, Astana is one of the coldest capitals in the world. Pop. (2021) 1,234,042; (2023 est.) 1,354,507.
History
The city was founded in 1824 as a Russian military outpost and became an administrative center in 1868. Its population had reached 33,000 when it was made an oblast (province) center in 1939. The city’s importance was greatly enhanced during the Soviet period by the government’s Virgin and Idle Lands Campaign of the mid-1950s—Tselinograd was Russian for “City of the Virgin Lands”—and by the city’s role as capital of a kray (region) that united the five northern provinces of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic in 1960–65. There was much new construction and the establishment of research and higher educational institutions (teacher training, agriculture, medicine, and engineering and construction).
Capital and name changes
The city’s name was changed to Aqmola (“White Grave”) in 1992 following Kazakhstan’s independence. In 1994 the Kazakh government resolved to transfer the national capital from Almaty to Aqmola, a process completed in 1997, and the city’s name was again changed, to Astana (“Capital”), the following year. Kazakh Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev spent vast sums of the country’s oil profits on a drastic expansion and reconstruction of Astana. The government hired Japanese architect Kurokawa Kishō to design Astana’s broad avenues and blue-and-gold buildings, including the Presidential Palace. Nazarbayev also employed British architect Norman Foster to design the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, a pyramid that stands 203 feet (62 meters) tall and includes, among other things, a library and an opera house. The city continued to develop rapidly throughout Nazarbayev’s presidency, and on March 20, 2019, the day after he left office, the city was renamed Nur-Sultan in his honor. The name was changed back to Astana in September 2022.
