Which Asian capital was renamed from Nur-Sultan back to its previous name in 2022? The answer is Astana.
Astana is Kazakhstan’s capital on the Ishim River. Its modern settlement was founded as Akmoly in 1830, later becoming Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, and Akmola. Kazakhstan moved its capital from Almaty to the city in December 1997, and the name Astana—Kazakh for “capital city”—was adopted in 1998.
The city was renamed Nur-Sultan in March 2019, shortly after longtime president Nursultan Nazarbayev resigned. The change honored Nazarbayev, whose first name is Nursultan. In September 2022, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a constitutional amendment restoring the name Astana.
A common mix-up is to treat Nur-Sultan as a different city; it was simply Astana’s official name for several years. The city has undergone several name changes, including Soviet-era Tselinograd, but it has remained Kazakhstan’s capital since 1997.