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HISTORY OF BIG SUR COAST

  A new dawn:              Locals had long called for a road along the coast to aid shipwreck victims and improve access to isolated communities.  Construction started in 1919, and 18 years, 32 tonnes of dynamite and 33 bridges later, the Big Sur stretch of California Highway One was complete.               The implausible route, with its myriad twists and turns and dramatic drop-offs, became an instant classic.  The author and painter Henry Miller fled to Big Sur in 1944 and stayed for nearly two decades.  Photographer Edward Weston and Beat Generation bard Jack Kerouac fell under its spell.  By the late 1960’s San Francisco’s counterculture revolution had swept down to Big Sur, and the likes of Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell performed on the cliff tops.              ...
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ASTANA

 Astana:

Astana


              This cutting-edge showpiece of contemporary architecture on the wild steppes of Kazakhstan is the realisation of one man’s dream, outshining other modern cities such as Shanghai and Hong Kong.

               Kazakhstan is a colossal country.  The ninth largest in the world by area, four times the size of France, it stretches from the Caspian sea virtually to Mongolia.  Its northern border with Russia is 4,650 miles (7,500 km) long.  The country’s original capital, Almaty, nestles in the far southeast, in the foothills of Tien Shan Mountains – closer to Kyrgyzstan and China than to most of its own nation.  In 1995, Kazakhstan’s king like president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, announced that he wanted a new capital in the heart of the country.  The site chosen was Akmola, a small industrial city on the Ishim River and major railway junction nearly 600 miles (1000 km) northwest of Almaty – not exactly in the centre, but at least in the middle of the vast steppes that shaped the character of the nation.  The new name was to be Astana, meaning simply ‘capital’.
                This vast area was formerly notorious for its Soviet prison camps or gulags.  Winter here lasts for six months and temperatures can drop to -40C       (-40F).  In contrast, summer can be baking, with temperature topping 40C (104F).  Undeterred by the hostile climate, President Nazarbayev envisaged an ultra-modern city, with air-conditioning and open green spaces.  He had the resources to achieve this.  Drawing on Kazakhstan’s vast oil, gas and mineral wealth, he could hire the services of the world’s top architects to create his prestige capital.  Japan’s Kisho Kurokawa (1934-2007) was entrusted with the master plan, which came to fruition in 1997, when the capital city was officially opened for business.
Location: Nur-Sultan 020000, Kazakhstan

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