Kazakhstan’s Capital Is Getting Renamed After Its Former President

To honor his predecessor, Tokayev proposed changing the name of Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan since 1997, to Nursultan, as his first act as president. The Kazakh government attempted to change to capital city’s name to Nursultan in 2016, but the project never came to fruition, until now.

This isn’t the first time Astana’s name has changed over the years; when the city was founded in 1830, it was called Akmoly. Two years later, it became Akmolinsk, then changed to Tselinograd in 1961, and Akmola in 1991. In 1997, the Kazakh government moved the capital city from Almaty, a city on the border with Kyrgyzstan and close to China, to its current location and renamed the city Astana, i.e. “capital.” In Kazakh, “Nursultan” signifies “sultan of light.”

H/T: Lonely Planet