Astana, Kazakhstan (day 17)

  Day 17 - January 23, 2023

Today Brandon and I visited the Grand Mosque of Astana, the largest mosque in central Asia. The building was just completed and opened to the public in 2022. The mosque is currently on the outskirts of town, without many buildings nearby. Because of its location, it is hard to judge just how big the mosque is until you are right up close to it. The height of the central dome is 273 feet. The carpet in the main and women's prayer areas are handmade and cover an area of 167109.71 square feet (the largest handmade carpet in the world). It was quite interesting to see how a brand new mosque, which took 3 years to build, compared to some of the mosques I visited in Istanbul. Everything in the mosque here looks and feels so fresh in comparison to the comparatively 'ancient' mosques like Hagia Sophia.

After the mosque we went over to the Expo complex. An international expo, on future energy, was held here in 2017. Inside the center sphere are a bunch of exhibits, but it is only open for the weekends at this time of year.   

Walked from the Expo over to the Arch of Triumph which is set in the center of a busy street. The arch was built as a symbol of the twentieth anniversary of Kazakhstan's independence.

I find it interesting to observe what kinds of different things can be found while traveling. Seeing how cultures do things in different ways because of their location and traditions. Watching the way people work, they seem to be much more relaxed than our fast paced American culture. Work still gets done, but just at a more chill pace (no pun intended, or was it :D )

Groups of city blocks are developed by one developer, so the buildings within each block have similar designs.