City (pop., 1999: 319,318), capital of Kazakhstan. Situated on the banks of the Ishim River in north-central Kazakhstan, it was founded in 1824 as a Russian military outpost.
The city's importance was enhanced by its location at the junction of the Trans-Kazakhstan and South Siberian railways. It is in the centre of a mineral-rich steppe region. In 1994 the Kazakh government began to transfer the national capital from Almaty to Astana, changing the city's name in 1998.
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