Casa Asia

Winning essay of the Marco Polo Award 2010

The jury of the literary contest Marco Polo Award of Casa Asia and the Embassy of Kazakhstan decided to grant the award to Glòria Macià Muñoz, student of 4th year of ESO of Instituto La Industrial de Sabadell for her essay called "The crossroad of two worlds". The award consists of a 6-day trip to Kazakhstan for the winner, together with her parents.

Kazakhstan: Between Europe and Asia
Casa Asia has chosen Kazakhstan for the second edition of the Marco Polo Award for being one of the youngest countries of Asia and, at the same time, for being heir of a great historical and cultural heritage unknown in Spain.

Geographically, Kazakhstan adjacents to the Caucasian Europe, Russia, China and with the majority of Central Asian lands. For this reason, from time immemorial, in its lands paths of communications, civilizations, religions and ideologies converge. This way, Kazakhstan is a passing by place and meeting point of Asia and Europe and of the East and the West. In the different stages of its history, in the land of Kazakhstan stages with genuine cultural history have been shaped and developed, heir of the nomad traditions of the Central Asian steppes present in oral transmission literature, in cooking and traditional art.

Currently, its capital is Astana; placed to the north of the country. Astana is a young city, created in 1997, which includes buildings through for some of the most acknowledged international architects. Almaty, in the south, is the former capital and is still the centre of business of the country par excellence. Around Almaty, anciently 'Alma Ata' (translated from Kazak language as 'Father of Apples'), camels went through the silk routes that merchants traced between the Far East to our Mediterranean Sea in the ancient times and probably one of the points of the Marco Polo route in its discovery of the Far East.

"The crossroad of two worlds" (complete essay in PDF format)

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