Astana, A Desert In Bloom?

I had never heard of Astana, the Capital of Kazakhstan. Apparently they have kept this city quite well hidden from us, I just stumbled across this today and was amazed at the occult architecture that abounds in this petro-rich ex-soviet satellite country.

Please check out these links and photos, and form your own opinions, I know that I have already formed some opinions of my own about this place.

And be sure to check out the video on Astana, posted for your convienience below.........

From Wikipedia: History - Russian and Soviet eras

"A unit of Siberian cossacks from Omsk founded a huge fortress on the upper Ishim in 1824, which later became the town of "Akmolinsk". During the early 20th century, the town became a major railway junction, causing a major economic boom that lasted until the Russian Civil War.
Kazakhstan hosted in the Stalinist era a series of Gulag-like labour camps, in total 11 camps that housed up to hundreds of thousands of internees and their families. Outside Astana, there once stood the ALZHIR camp, a Russian acronym for the Akmolinskii Camp for Wives of Traitors of the Motherland, one of the most notorious in the Gulag archipelago, which was reserved for the spouses of those considered "enemies of the people" by the government under Joseph Stalin.[5]

In 1961, it was renamed "Tselinograd" ("Virgin Lands City"[6]) and made capital of the Soviet Virgin Lands Territory (Tselinny Krai). The city was at the centre of the Virgin Lands Campaign led by Nikita Khrushchev in the 1950s, in order to turn the state into a second grain producer for the Soviet Union. The high portion of Russian immigrants in this area, which later led to ethnic tension, can be traced to the influx of agricultural workers at this time. Additionally, many Russian-Germans were resettled here after being deported under Joseph Stalin at the beginning of World War II, when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union."

From BBC, a great description of Kazakhstan!

The Vigilant Citizen has done supurb research on the city of Astana, see their page here!

Also, a special thanks to Incoming!!!!! over at PHEKKWITZ AHOY!!!!! for pointing out this place to me.

Bayterek

Pyramid of Peace