Memorial "Alzhir" — Attraction in Aqmol

I originally didn’t plan to visit this memorial, but my tour guide friend drove me to this place (for free of course, as a kind gesture) the day after I visited Burabay, and was my last place to visit within the vicinity of Astana. And boy, was I ever thankful to the tour guide as I realized that this place should have been included in my original itinerary – a must visit for any first time tourists visiting Astana in my opinion. Though a bit far from the city, you can conveniently book a car via ride hailing app from Astana City Center but be aware that there are no public transportation available on your way back to Astana City. So I strongly suggest that you include this memorial in your guided city tour itinerary if you have a tour guide, as it was not initially included in mine. Or if you are travelling solo, best that you can do is to book a taxi and let the driver wait for you for an hour (you need to pay or tip the driver for waiting though).

About the memorial: upon learning more about the horrors of the women who faced persecution during the early Soviet rule on KZ while in the main museum, melancholy swept in – there are no words that I can describe more about the tragic history of the persecuted families. I suggest for you to google Alzhir, Astana before visiting the place, as you will be briefed first about this former labor concentration camp of women, who are mostly wives of the supposedly traitors to the Soviet cause. Heart-breaking. And I am quite thankful that KZ built this memorial as it is now a reminder of the so-called ‘necessary evil’ (very ironic) that swept throughout Soviet Russia.

PS. Pictures of my visit will be...

This world history teacher loved it! The receptionist at our hotel in Astana tried to talk us out of going, he said it was small and there was nothing written in English. He is a fool and shouldn't be working with tourists. Anyone willing to hire a taxi to go 45 minutes away to a small museum is obviously interested in seeing it and there is English. Almost everything is translated for you plus they have audio guides if you want. I didn't use one so I can't tell you how well or not well they function. It took us about 45 minutes to get there, the museum takes 1.5 hours to view, then 45 minutes to get back. Now, when I say 1.5 hours I do want to stress my husband and I are both history teachers and especially interested in politics. We looked at every display and walked around outside a bit. Don't miss the wall of names outback. It's set up in the style of the Vietnam Wall in Washington DC with the names of each of the prisoners engraved on the wall. In case you don't know what this place is, it was a prison, gulag, for the wives and children of political prisoners during the...

If you’re an English-speaking tourist visiting Astana, I wouldn’t make the effort to visit Alzhir.

It’s obviously a long way from the city and the bus connections aren’t ideal (305 or 312). We took a taxi but of course it’s more expensive (we paid 8000T via Yandex). We also found the staff at the museum very brusque and begrudging when it was clear we didn’t speak Russian.

But the main issue is the content of the museum is just…not worth it. There’s a handful of iffy English translations that explain a little about the camp, but otherwise the museum is dominated by photos of ex-prisoners with no info. Only around 30% of the content is available in English. Oh, unless you pay extra for the audio guide which rattles off a relentless set of names and life stories in a manner which is completely impossible to follow. It doesn’t really feel poignant in the way that other museums can do when they’re situated in historically-significant places.

We left thinking we’d have learnt more just by reading the...