Astana said to be thousand years old

Astana, July 07, 2009 (Khabar) - Kazakhstan’s historian and researcher, Marat Absemetov has advanced an idea that Astana is one thousand year old. Ahead of Astana’s 11th anniversary, the author issued a book entitled “the city with a 1000-year old history”. According to the scholar, the Astana at that time used to be the headquarters of the Ak Orda situated on the left-bank area and headed by Toktamysh khan who lived in the 14th century. The remains of the ancient settlement of Bozok are located just 5 kilometres from the capital city. It was the centre of Detshi-Kipchak, a state which was inhabited by Kazakh tribes. It took Marat Absemetov 15 years to collect all the materials proving that Astana is 1 thousand years old. To do this, he had to travel around the whole region collecting local folk information and looked into various tales and legends.

Marat Absemetov, historian, researcher:
- Our Astana is blooming and it has a solid foundation based on the history of Kazakhstan. This is the homeland of such famous people as Koblandy batyr and Khadji mukan. From this land, kipchak warriors called Magyars left for Europe and they were the stalls of Attila the Hun, Tamerlane and the headquarters of Toktamysh khan here.

A new city is being built next to the ancient one. It is young but is reflects the high ideals of the nation which is successful and sets new records.