A series of spectacular, but out of place, buildings rising up from the desert, Astana (now named Nur-Sultan) is less about the city itself – there wasn’t really anything here before 1994 – and more about the grand scale architecture build by some of the world’s leading architects to promote Astana as the nation’s capital . . . and to basically show off. A bit like a low-scale version of Dubai.
If passing through, its worth a half day to check out, but little reason to travel here purely for Astana.