The landmark of the Capital, architectural lucky charm – the ‘Astana Bayterek’ Monument – is a memorial structure, encompassing a deep philosophical, political and historical meaning. Mythical and epic version of ‘Bayterek’ completely reflects Kazakh ideals who strive for living in peace, harmony and according to their national traditions. Atop of the Kok-Tobe mountain there grows life tree ‘Bayterek’, at the foot of the mountain there is the limitless ocean. The holy bird, Samruk, lays a golden egg (the Sun) in the tree crown. The dragon eats the golden egg every year which represents alteration of day and night, the good and evil, the light and darkness, summer and winter. Ertostik challenges the dragon and wins the battle thus saving the Sun.
Bayterek means ‘holy poplar’ and can conventionally be divided into three parts: lower part – the roots – represents occurrence, middle part – the trunk – development, and the upper part – the crown – striving into the future. The monument is made of metal structures, glass and concrete. It is 105 meter (approx. 350 ft) high, 33 floors. The sphere weighs 300 tonnes (approx. 295 net tons), and is 22 meters (72 ft) in diameter.
Glasses of the sphere are ‘chameleon’ type – their external tint is golden, but internally they are transparent. The sphere includes three panoramic sites, where from 90-95-97-meter (295-310-320-ft) height you can see the city spread out before you, its development, perspectives, and scale. The top site, at 97-meter (320-ft) height, accommodates composition plot - ‘Аялы Алакан’ (Kind Palms) representing the national symbol ‘Tai-Kazan’, where you can see palm print of Nursultan Nazarbayev; it is in a silver amulet - tumar. The complex was inaugurated in August 30, 2002, on the Day of Constitution of the RK and at the international competition among architect design of CIS ‘Bayterek’ took the first place and was awarded gold medal. Creative victory for symbol designing was shared by the leader of the project Akmurza Rustambekov, architect Suyerkhan Bazarbayev, and design engineer Max Weinstein.
