Astana Rail Station

* December 10 – The capital of Kazakhstan is moved from Almaty to Astana.

Currently ( 2008 ), the line is used by direct passenger service from Urumqi in China's Xinjiang to Almaty and Astana in Kazakhstan ..

Astana ( Russian /, formerly known as Akmola ( Kazakh: Ақмола / Aqmola, until 1998 ), Целиноград / Tselinograd until 1992 ) and Akmolinsk ( Russian: Акмолинск, until 1961 ), has been the capital of Kazakhstan since 1997, and is the country's second largest city ( after Almaty, the former capital ) with an officially estimated population of 708, 794 as of 1 August 2010.

The current mayor of Astana is Imangali Tasmagambetov.

The word Astana in Kazakh literally means Capital but the word itself originates from Persian Astane ( means " sublime threshold ," " royal porte " implying a royal capital city or a holy shrine town, ( from the Persian verb Istadan ( آستان ) ' to stand ' ( in respect )), and literally means " threshold " ( royal or sacred, where people stand in respect or awe ), implying where the court is seated ( the capital city ) or the body of a sacred person is interred ( a shrine town ).

Astana is located in central Kazakhstan on the Ishim River in a very flat, semi-arid steppe region which covers most of the country's territory.

The elevation of Astana is at above sea level.

Astana is in a spacious steppe landscape, in the transitional area between the north of Kazakhstan and the extremely thinly settled national center, because of the river Ishim.

Climatically, Astana is the second coldest capital in the world after Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, a position formerly held by Canada's capital, Ottawa, until Astana became the capital.

Astana is also the coldest place ever recorded in the country of Kazakhstan.

The average annual temperature in Astana is.

The Astana Metro is a planned underground construction in Astana.

Astana is twinned with:

* Aqmola Province, the Province of Kazakhstan where Astana is located.

It is dammed downstream of central Astana, keeping its level higher than it otherwise would be most of the time, while the river bottom has been made deeper, in order to let flood waters through faster.

In central Astana, near the city park, there is now a public beach and pedalo boat rental ; meanwhile, if the river had not been dammed, " citizens would have been able to walk across it ".

Air Astana is headquartered in the Air Astana Centre 1 in Almaty.

Khan Shatyry Entertainment Center | Khan Shatryry (" Royal Marquee ") in Astana, Kazakhstan is the highest tensile structure in the World

The enterprise's head office is in Tokyo with branch offices in Osaka, Nagoya, Astana, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing and Los Angeles.

Astana () is a professional road bicycle racing team sponsored by the Astana group, a coalition of state-owned companies from Kazakhstan and named after its capital city Astana.

Kazakhstan's Chaimanship presents important opportunities for both, Astana and OSCE.

Lufthansa Cargo used to operate a hub for intra-Asian flights at Astana International Airport in Kazakhstan, but was forced to relocate it to Yemelyanovo Airport in Russia in 2007, because otherwise the airline would have been banned from entering Russian airspace, in what was described as an act of economic blackmailing by the Russian authorities.

It operates scheduled domestic and international services on 56 routes from its main hub, Almaty International Airport, and from its 2 secondary hubs, Astana International Airport and Atyrau Airport.

A joint statement of the member countries of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation issued in early July, 2005 on a conference in Astana ( Kazakstan ) called for a withdrawal of US troops from military bases in Central Asia.

Outside Astana, there once stood the ALZHIR camp, a Russian acronym for the Akmolinskii Camp for Wives of Traitors of the Motherland, one of the most notorious in the Gulag archipelago, which was reserved for the spouses of those considered " enemies of the people " by the government under Joseph Stalin.

Astana International Airport was, like the plan for the whole new city, designed by the late Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa.

* Astana Team, the UCI code for the professional road bicycle racing team

On 4 July 2011, Sting cancelled a concert appearance scheduled for the Astana Day Festival in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Since 1998, the Ishim River in Astana has been actively managed, for flood management and maintaining water level, in order to provide for recreational use and ensure the showpiece appearance.

Haileybury Astana opened on 31 August 2011, providing education for boys and girls from the two to eleven years of age under the leadership of Andrew Auster, Headmaster.

* The IATA Airline Designator for Air Astana, Kazakhstan's national airline

* Anatoly Bose, guard / forward for BC Astana

He toured an exhibition of photographs taken in Semipalatinsk by his friend the actress and photographer Kimberley Joseph from the Scottish Parliament, to the European Parliament, the UK Department for International Development, the United Nations headquarters in New York and finally, to Almaty, Astana and Semipalatinsk itself in Kazakhstan.

* The IATA airport code for Astana International Airport

After the 2007 season Johan Bruyneel went to rebuild the shamed and suspended Team Astana for the 2008 season.

Astana stepped in to sponsor the team, and during the second half of the season, Vinokourov won the Vuelta a España while riding for the renamed Team Astana, and his Kazakh teammate Andrey Kashechkin finished third.

However, Saiz was reluctant to sell, so Astana applied for a licence in their own right.

The UCI ProTour license commission first informed Astana that they would not be granted a ProTour License for the 2007 season.

Yegor Ilyich Titov () ( born May 29, 1976 in Moscow ) is a retired association footballer who played midfielder, who last played for Lokomotiv Astana.

In 2007, Joachim transferred to the Astana outfit, but left them after two seasons, and rode for Differdange during 2009.