Richard And Jo Demeester's photos

I can't ever recall seeing camels with, what at least looks like, a soft woolly coat. These too looked fluffy and, almost, cuddly. From this angle, you can see that the Mausoleum was never completed. The main facades remain bare, and structural beams are still exposed. Work ceased when the sponsor passed away. Later, they cleaned it up, but retained the unfinished appearance.

We hopped in a minibus to Turkestan, a couple of hours and some away from Shymkent. Here, the main sight for us was the Yasaui Mausoleum. Built in the 14th century on the site of an existing tomb. It was already a significant pilgrimage site back then, and these days it still seems the pilgrims make up the bulk of the visitors. Coloured bricks and tiles bring delightful colour and patterns to most exterior facades of the imposing structure.

Most war memorials are very moving. Few things have comparable impact to listing names of lives lost. 140000 from south Kazakhstan.

In contrast to our mosque visit, earlier in the day, the Grand Mosque was bustling and lively. Children cried out and ran across the lush thick carpet, rolling and playing in delight. People sat around and chatted in circles. It felt very uptempo and relaxed.

Replacing Hazrat Sultan Mosque as the principal place of worship, the Grand Mosque was opened this year. It is the largest mosque in Central Asia, and ranks amongst the largest in the world.

Inside Nur Alem Pavilion, Jo shows us how fearless she is on the glass floor.

The glass of the building is not pieced together to approximate a ball, but each piece was engineered with the precise curve in it, to make a true sphere. Inside is an eight storey museum about energy, space, and the future for Kazakhstan. This follows on from its original use as the centrepiece of Expo 2017 International Exhibition. It is known as the Nur Alem Pavillion.

A couple of men have chosen sunny spots to study.

The Hazrat Sultan Mosque was the main mosque for Astana until this year, when a new mosque was inaugurated. We visited at a quiet time, when only a handful of others were inside.

Khan Shatyr means “Royal Marquee”. It is a shopping centre full of brands and entertainment, including rides and a dinosaur theme park. These two buildings mark the western end of Nurzhol Boulevard.

This city has had a number of names. In 1998, it became “Astana”, when the capital was moved here. Only in 2019 was it renamed to Nur-Sultan. With that renaming, and the following growth, planners took the opportunity to lay out the wide boulevards, creating a very open feel, and opportunities for key buildings and landmark structures to become features. The focus of the layout is Nurzhol Boulevard, and the iconic Baiterek Tower. It is inspired by legends of Samruk, who lays her egg at the top of the tree of life.

Nur-Sultan, capital of Kazkhstan. Looking out from the top of the Baiterek Tower, towards the east. The golden tapered towers provide bookends of the view of Kazakhstan’s presidential palace. Beyond that, the river separates the (obscured in this photo) Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, Independence Square, and more important buildings, as well as an important mosque.

Most of the graves were simple walled affairs, perhaps a stone marker, or maybe just piled earth or rocks within. Some were buildings with roofs, perhaps with a dome or a peak, appearing like a little mosque. These tombs, for the most part, were plain inside. Bare bricks, or a plain plaster render. We found four, though, that had interesting paintings on the walls. Pictures which, in some way, reflect the personality or wishes of the person now entombed within.

After wandering around the cemetery for an hour or so, we came across some fenced off areas where some of the oldest graves are. How old, we don't know, but certainly to be measured in hundreds of years. This one particularly prominent grave marker we thought to be outstanding.

Not far from Aktau, Koshkar Ata cemetery feels like a small city. When you wander deep within, and then seek a vantage point, there is almost nothing that can be seen in any direction other than tombs.

At the Caspian Riviera Grand Palace Hotel, the basement room has two huge aquariums - a million or so litres. One aquarium is under the glass floor in the middle of the room, with dining tables. The other takes up an entire wall. The tanks are full of sturgeon. Associated with the hotel are pools where they breed and raise these huge fish, which are released in to the Caspian Sea not more than 100 metres away.

Shopan Ata is the Sufi attributed with bringing Islam to the Mangistau region of Kazakhstan. Probably around the 10th century, he was teaching from this series of caves. The land near the cave mosque has centuries of burials. The closest spots are the oldest graves, with some of his students being amongst those burials. Further away, more recent cemeteries have sprung up, and burials still do occur out here, miles from everything.