海角大神

Astana: A city built for giants

08/27/2013 3:37 pm ET This sculpture of a man playing a traditional instrument called the dombra offers one of the rare glimpses of Kazakhstan鈥檚 pre-Soviet culture. Kazakhs were a nomadic people who rode horses across the wide open plains of the Steppe, raising animals and running trade routes between far-off civilizations. Stalin forcibly settled the Kazakhs and dumped political prisoners here from around the Soviet Union. This history also explains the borrowing of foreign building styles and the desire to be a trading hub.