By Dosken
Photo Aleksandra Vlasova

Our history consists of several flashes of nights on the steppe, by the camp fires, singing on the ruins of Semirechie, near the Syrdariya. The cities, a challenge to its flat surroundings, died alone. Old people, I would like to know how my cities died

The Great steppe... there is sadness, eternity on her countenance, making an entire era seems like a moment. This ocean of the endless plains with solidified hills and wrinkled mountains has strange memories, each event a legend, each legend a memory. Many, many years ago this unique steppe civilization was born here, always striving to be understood, but went, according to legend, unclaimed.
We are in the habit of regarding civilizations as being cities - it was thought that nomad camps and cities are incompatible. Is this true? A nomad disappearing beyond the horizon, following a spring, knew that he would return to the banks of his native rivers and to the shores of his native lakes, where, drearily shimmering in the haze and peering into the boundless distance, was the city of his country, the home of his people. These steppe cities had all the attributes of city-life, the city-culture of that time.
Through many centuries new cities grew; and settlements changed in turn. Who were the architects, who created these cities, minarets and fortresses?
“Turks build their cities and give them names. They are still used”. (Makhmud Kashgari, 11th century). These Turkic cities were magnificently beautiful. “Marvelous, amazing, crowded, with large reserves of water, many gardens and treasures”, according to traders and merchants. These cities and sacred places were native to Turks. But not just to them. As Makhmud Kashgari said: “if someone came to a Turk's country seeking protection against the enemy, he would be taken under their wing - they didn't refuse.  They believed in different Gods, read different books and presented different cultures, but it didn't prevent from living in peace. This was steppe society, honoring the capital where the noble kagans were situated and where the holy banner was kept  the bairak. The compound was set up in Baitak during autumn and winter. Baitak means 'wide Holy Mountain'. This is how the people of the steppe exalted their capital.
When springtime came they moved to jailyau, the grazing ground for cattle in spring, summer and autumn. A caravan of carriages with thousands of yurts packed on the carts, known as Kok Kuime (blue yurta) since the time of ancient Turks, slowly moved towards jailyau. The blue yurta was praised by the Chinese poet Bo Dzu-E, a contemporary of ancient Turks: “A Prince covered his palaces with carving, and they compare well with the blue yurts. I will not give the yurta to a prince's grand family in exchange for his palaces”.
This is why this grandiose, charming, beautiful, heavenly solemn procession was passed on from century to century and remained the admired day-dream of nomads. At this time the inhabitants of the earthen city: potters and blacksmiths, peasants, wine-makers, merchants and scientists were busied with their daily work, waiting for the horde. The word «K9Ul» (nomads' camp) became «K9Ule» (street).
The caravans came and went, days dawned and diminished, dissolving in time, running over the steppe, eroding generation after generation. Countries' names changed, capitals' names changed, but only one thing remained stable - the tradition of choosing a capital. The capital would certainly arise from the bank of a full-flowing river or the shore of a steppe lake. Nomads could not spend the winter around their capital without this condition. In ancient times, steppe people highly regarded the holiness of the location. The location of the capital was honored by all people as a sacred place. Usually the sanctity of the capital was protected by the ancient shrines, saints' graves and a pantheon quite near the town. The caravan route passed through the central area, which connected the steppe with the outside world. The area of the capital guaranteed safe dwelling for the nomads for the winter. Despite this peaceful way of life, there were still bloody wars however, the great idea of peace and freedom always lived in the memory of the steppe.
These cities, like the ancient caravan routes, first appeared, then disappeared, but never forever. A renewed country was born. It was called the Kazakh Horde, appearing in 1456. The words 'lost' and 'search' would reveal the historical destiny of the Steppe. Throughout the times people populated the Great Steppe, they lost what they had found and found what they had lost. It lasted for centuries - a history made searching of lost. The Kazakh Horde by rights, inheritor of the Blue Horde, appeared as the curator of these treasures and traditions formed on the base of the steppe civilization of nomadic life: Sauran and Sygnak. These revered towns were the capitals of the Blue Horde, the initial centers of our country. Oh, how beautifully and splendidly the minarets sang praises through singers of Sauran.
“There is a good climate in Sauran, located on the open steppe. It is a beautiful city with grazing flocks of sheep and wild goats in the suburbs, surrounded by poplars and willows. The walls of the city are high, surrounded by deep ditches”, (Ruzbeck khan, 16th century).
These walls remind us of the time of the great Desht and Kipchak; it seemed that even the hand of all-powerful fate would never touch them. A long time ago Sygnak was buried under a layer of sand. Sygnak was an ancient capital and not long ago, the trade centre of Desht and Kipchak.
“Oh, Sygnak, I would kiss the dust of your gates with the tears on my face. If I were born again,
I would be born in Sygnak”, (Shamsuddin Sygnak, 12th century). At the beginning of the 16th century, the capital of the horde was moved to the city of Saraichik, located on the bank of the Zhaiyk River. This famous town housed the pantheon of the Golden Horde khans, the last place of the famous Kasym Khan, collector of Kazakh lands.
“Saraichik is situated on the bank of the Ulysu River (the Great River). Like Bagdad, people here boat and build bridges”, (Ibn Batuty, 14th century).
After Kasym Khan's death, hard days filled with strife and persecution came to the steppe. Country life was shaken, there were losses after losses. Terrible rumors about changes spread through neighbouring countries, all the way to India. In the 1540s, Kashmir's Emir Muhammad Haidar Dulati wrote: “there is no even track of the Kazakh people. It is a sign of fate”.
The Kazakhs revived from the ashes again with years of struggle passing in the name of life on Earth. During this time of strife, the capital of country was located in the ancient town of Sozak. In 1598 Tauekel Bahadur Khan realised his fondest dream - to give back to the Horde the holy town of Turkistan, lost during the strife. It was there, early one morning, that Saint Khodja Akhmet Yassavi looked at the rising sun for the last time and retreated to an underground prayer room, Hilvet, in search of a non-earthly light, 'the truth of the Universe', in Ruzbekhans words. The architecture showed the power of human art, 'be the dust, let the world go through you', Khodja Akhmet said. The nobility of the steppe never bowed their heads before anybody, they always lasted to be buried in Khodja Akhmet's shadow. Right here we find the last khan of the Kazakhs, the Great Abylai dead.
At the bottom of the grand mountains of ZaiIi Ala-Tau there is the small provincial town Vernyi, permeating with the smell of apples and the murmur of the brooks. On the 14th of March 1921 according to the law of the Turkestani ASSR Government, the town was renamed Alma-Ata according to a decision of the Municipal Committee of Communist Party (the question of spelling was discussed many times by the community and officials). Nevertheless, the town was called Alma-Ata for many years and many generations. In 1994 the spelling was officially changed to Almaty.  After the national delimitation of Middle Asia, Alma-Ata became the administrative, cultural, economic centre of the reformed area. On the 29th of April 1927 the Government of the RSFSR approved the decision of the 6th All-Kazakhstani Congress of Soviets about transferring the capital from KzylOrda to Alma-Ata.

On the 26th of March, the 10th Congress of Kazakhstan Soviets accepted the Constitution, according which autonomy was transferred to the United Republic. Alma-Ata became the administrative centre of the Kazakh Soviet Socialistic Republic. People created Alma-Ata's culture, marked with a special feeling of love for their city. This love is reflected in the image of the city. Decades passed with the capital as the center of political and social and economical events and, since the USSR didn't exist anymore, the Republic of Kazakhstan gained sovereignty and independence. On the 30th of August 1995 the new Constitution was passed, according to which Kazakhstan would enter a new era in its development: Alma-Ata (renamed Almaty) little by little would lose its capital status, and on the eve of the 3rd millennium would give its torch to Astana  the country's new capital. And now we are witnesses of the changing of Astana to the most beautiful city of Kazakhstan resulting in the opening of Astana's role in the consolidation of Kazakhstan's statehood.