Astana

Astana is the capital city of Kazakhstan. With a population of 1,423,726 within the city limits, it is the second-largest in the country after Almaty, which had been the capital until 1997. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmola Region, though administered as a city with special status separately from the rest of the region. Initially founded as Akmoly in 1830, the city was later renamed Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, and Akmola before adopting the name Astana in 1998, which means "capital city" in Kazakh. In 2019, the city briefly adopted the name Nur-Sultan in honor of former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, but it returned to the name Astana in 2022.