Inside the eerily quiet streets of Kazakhstan’s 20-year-old capital city, where futuristic skyscrapers tower over the grasslands of a former prison camp

• Astana was named the capital of Kazakhstan in 1997, and has undergone a massive transformation since then.
• The city is filled with futuristic skyscrapers that resemble a science-fiction movie.
• But Astana’s streets are suspiciously clean and quiet, leading some to comment on its eerie atmosphere.

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Twenty years ago, Kazakhstan’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev made a radical move by moving his country’s capital to a little-known town in the middle of barren grassland.

He renamed the town “Astana,” meaning “capital,” and hired a world-famous Japanese architect to plan every aspect of the city, from its eye-popping skyline to its grandiose government buildings. Today, the city is read more >>>

Source : BusinessInsider.Com