Unique photos presented to Astana for its birthday

Crossing of Abai and Beibitshilik streets. ©Lawrence Sherwin

Kazakhstan is celebrating the 13th anniversary of Astana on July 6, 2011. All Kazakhstan residents are having a day off today. Tengrinews.kz English is offering unique photographs of Tselinograd (an old name of Astana) made by one of the first foreign tourists. These photographs got into hands of a Kazakhstan blogger Sabina Sadenova. She said that American Lawrence Sherwin visited Tselinograd in 1978 as part of the delegation from the USA. Over 30 years is not a very long period for the city. But not in this case. For example, the first photo: a low house on the background and a bronze Lenin monument. It is hard to believe that the building behind Lenin is the current headquarters of the Ministry of Tourism and Sport at the crossing of Abai and Beibitshilik streets. Photo number three shows how famous Astana’s embankment looked like 33 years ago, while the seventh photo is a shot made in the area of the current “Old Bazar”. It became much more crowded after tens of years. Today Astana is celebrating its 13th anniversary. On July 16, 1994 Kazakhstan Supreme Council supported Nursultan Nazarbayev's idea to move Kazakhstan capital from Almaty to Akmola which was renamed to Astana in May 1998. An international presentation of the main Kazakhstan city was made in June 1998.

Kazakhstan is celebrating the 13th anniversary of Astana on July 6, 2011. All Kazakhstan residents are having a day off today. Tengrinews.kz English is offering unique photographs of Tselinograd (an old name of Astana) made by one of the first foreign tourists. These photographs got into hands of a Kazakhstan blogger Sabina Sadenova. She said that American Lawrence Sherwin visited Tselinograd in 1978 as part of the delegation from the USA. Over 30 years is not a very long period for the city. But not in this case. For example, the first photo: a low house on the background and a bronze Lenin monument. It is hard to believe that the building behind Lenin is the current headquarters of the Ministry of Tourism and Sport at the crossing of Abai and Beibitshilik streets. Photo number three shows how famous Astana’s embankment looked like 33 years ago, while the seventh photo is a shot made in the area of the current “Old Bazar”. It became much more crowded after tens of years. Today Astana is celebrating its 13th anniversary. On July 16, 1994 Kazakhstan Supreme Council supported Nursultan Nazarbayev's idea to move Kazakhstan capital from Almaty to Akmola which was renamed to Astana in May 1998. An international presentation of the main Kazakhstan city was made in June 1998.

Kazakhstan Kazakh celebration Astana