It is only a brief 90 minute flight from the 30 degrees heat of Osh but walking outof the airport terminal it is only 5 degrees here and the wind is icy.Welcome to Astana, the capitol of Kazakhstan. It is less than a month since summer ended here. Moscow is a further 2000km north and it is just on freezing point there. Suddenly the lessons of history crystallize in my mind. Napoleon and Hitler defeated by the Russian cold, were not complete fools. Unless you experience how cold it gets here and how quickly you cannot hope to understand.
Almaty is the largest city and business hub of the oil and mineral resource rich Kazakhstan. It was also the capitol until the dictator president Nazarbaev named this place, a medium sized provincial city as the site of a new grand, and grandiose, capitol in 1994. Renamed Astana, which in Kazakh means capitol, it is a growing city of extravagant and futuristic architecture in the middle of flat and bleak steppes.
This is a fascinating experimental city and a photographic gold mine. There is just one problem that this place shares in common with all contrived new developments. It lacks soul. The streets are empty there are no vendors, cafes nor any signs of life. Sadly I am left feeling as cold inside as I am on the outside.
Enjoy these weird and wonderful pictures.
