The capital of Kazakhstan has recently been nicknamed the ‘Dubai of the Steppe’, and it’s possible to understand the comparison if you’re prepared to swap extreme heat for cold, as Matteo Legnani found out when he visited Astana’s airport.
KAZAKHSTAN
Astana’s terminal buildings opened in 2005 (T2, above) and 2017 (T1, below). (All photos author)
Until a few years ago, Astana was a relatively unknown city despite being the principal business centre of the world’s ninth-biggest – and largest landlocked – country. It does, however, also hold the title of the coldest capital as, in winter, temperatures can drop to -51°C (-59.8°F). The metropolis – the nation’s fifth-most populous – was not known by its current name until 1998. It had been founded in 1824 as Akmolinsk by a group of Siberian Cossacks from Omsk, Russia, and then became Tselinograd (hence its airport’s code, TSE) when Kazakhstan was a republic of the Soviet Union. After the USSR collapsed the country gained its independence and Tselinograd became Aqmola (‘white mausoleum’ in the local language).
It only got its current name – which means capital – when President Nursaltan Nazarbayev moved the government and parliament north from Almaty in 1997…
