Discover Kazakhstan

Astana is well served by museums and galleries. The National Museum covers the history and culture of Kazakhstan from the Stone Age to the Space Age. The different halls house an ethnography collection with a real Kazakh yurt (the nomad’s traditional home), a hall dedicated to Astana’s history, one dealing with Kazakhstan’s independence, and a modern art collection.

The museum’s showpiece is the Hall of Gold with a spectacular selection of gold artefacts from down the ages discovered in Kazakhstan. Its centrepiece is the Golden Man, a warrior dressed in an outfit crafted entirely from gold.

To whet your appetite for the rest of Kazakhstan, visit the Atameken Ethno-memorial Complex, an open-air museum. Here you can see the country’s varied landscapes in miniature with models of the main towns and cities represented along with mountain, desert and steppe areas and the Caspian Sea.

Unwinding in Astana

As part of the vision for the new capital, Astana has been designed with green spaces in mind. The embankment of the Ishim River is a popular spot for a stroll. You can also take a boat trip on the river and, if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, even take a dip in the river from one of Astana’s beaches.

Central Park, on the left bank, is one of the city’s livelier spots with its shady, tree-lined paths, fairground rides and

kebab stalls attracting hosts of visitors on a balmy summer’s evening. Zheruyik Park is one of the greenest in the city with its thousands of mature trees. It has cycling and jogging paths, along with a tricky rope walk to test out your climbing skills.

Astana Opera is a treat for lovers of high culture with its repertoire of classic operas and ballets such as the ballet Don Quixote and the opera

Madame Butterfly, along with Kazakh productions such as Karagoz, a Romeo and Juliet-style ballet set on Kazakhstan’s steppe, and the opera Kyz Zhibek, another tale of star-crossed lovers, complete with live horses and camels.

You can also take the waters in the city centre at the Keremet bath complex, which has separate public pools for men and women, Finnish and Russian saunas and a Turkish steam bath. Massages and other spa treatments are also available.

There are plenty of fine dining options in Astana with all the world’s main cuisines on offer. To try some classics of Kazakh cuisine with a modern twist, visit Arnau, a top-end restaurant that features horsemeat served in various innovative ways along with traditional tipples such as kumis, fermented mare’s milk, and shubat, fermented camel’s milk.