Khan Shatyr — Attraction in Astana

Khan Shatyr ("Royal Marquee") is a giant transparent tent in Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan. Built in a distinctively neofuturist style, the architectural project was unveiled by the President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev on December 9, 2006.

The 90-metre (300 ft) high tent (150 m (490 ft) including the spire) has a 200-by-195-metre (656 ft × 640 ft) elliptical base covering 140,000 square metres (14 ha; 35 acres). Under the tent, an area larger than 10 football stadiums, is an urban-scale park, shopping and entertainment venue with squares and cobbled streets, a boating river, shopping centre, minigolf and indoor beach resort. The fabric roof is constructed from ETFE-cushions provided by Vector Foiltec, suspended on a network of cables strung from a central spire. The transparent material allows sunlight through which, in conjunction with the stack effect, air heating and cooling systems, is designed to maintain an internal temperature between 15–30 °C (59–86 °F) in the main space and 19–24 °C (66–75 °F) in the retail units, while outside the temperature varies between −35 and 35 °C (−31 and 95 °F) across the year.

Following the construction of the Palace of Peace and Reconciliation (opened in 2006), a glass pyramid, the Khan Shatyr Entertainment Center was the second national project in Nur-Sultan designed by UK architect Norman Foster (of Foster and Partners), (Partners in Charge Filo Russo and Peter Ridley), and UK engineers Buro Happold led by Mike Cook. Construction documentation architects were Linea and Gultekin. The construction of the tent-city was the responsibility of the Turkish company Sembol.

After a series of delays, the main mast was eventually erected in December 2008, and the whole complex was completed and opened on July 5, 2010, 70th birthday of Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev. Andrea Bocelli gave a concert for the occasion, with guests including the President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev; the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych; the President of Turkey, Abdullah Gül; the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko; the President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan; the President of Tajikistan, Emomalii Rahmon; the President of Kyrgyzstan, Roza Otunbayeva; the Crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan; and the King of...

Khan Shatyr is a stylish tent-shaped entertainment centre close to Lovers Park in the heart of Astana. The centre was designed by UK Architect Norman Foster and is one of the many interesting landmarks in the city, it was unveiled by Nursultan Nazarbayev in December 2006. We visited Khan Shatyr a number of times on our visit to Astana, it is definately worth exploring. Khan Shatyr or Khan’s marquee is one of the most interesting works of modern architecture. The marquee held a central role in the life of the Kazakh family. In the past, the Kazakhs used to be nomadic people and lived in yurts or tents.

What is Khan Shatyr like? It is a large shopping and entertainment center in the capital city. It was opened more than ten years ago, on July 6, 2010, on the birthday of the First President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev. Italian singer Andrea Bocelli was invited to perform at the official opening event. This architectural site is listed in the Guinness World Records as the world’s tallest marquee.

Khan Shatyr has a total area of 127,000 square meters, with boutiques of all world brands situated inside. The fashion industry here has got much more to offer compared to Slovakia. Family parks and entertainment centers also can...

They are trying to make this mall one of their most touristic spots, but at first sight you can't see why, is just a regular mall, with average stores. The stores for kazj souvenirs are really nice with fair prices tho.

But as a tourist, we ave to understand that the amazing thing about this mall is the architecture, that have different things, like the reference of how they just to build their houses when they where nomads, or the fact that they have no walls bus a patented polymer that help using the sun to keep the buiding in a comfortable temperature ( because nur-sultan is one of the coldest capitals in the world) or the fact that the first 2 floors are actually under earth floor, etc etc etc

Is a nice experience and...