Mausoleum of Kabanbai Batyr

Take Kabanbai Batyr Avenue southwards from the centre of town. After 11km you reach a roundabout. Go straight ahead, rather than left for the airport, passing after a further 1km the turning to Astana's hippodrome, inaugurated in 2007, on your right. After a further 20km, take the turning to the left signposted by a billboard depicting the Kabanbai Batyr Mausoleum. The monument, clearly visible ahead at the top of a low ridge, is reached after another 3.5km. Inaugurated in 2000, the red-brick mausoleum is cylindrical in form, with decorative corrugated ribs, rising to a cone which is intended to evoke the form of a warrior's helmet. The tomb inside honours the 18th-century Kazakh warrior Kabanbai Batyr - a hero of the campaigning against the Dzhungars. It takes the form of a stylised koytas, whose sides are etched with drawings of the warrior's weaponry.