Baiterek Tower
105-metre observation tower on Nurzhol Boulevard, its gilded sphere modelled on a Kazakh legend.
Baiterek was built between 1996 and 2002 as the centrepiece of the new capital laid out on the left bank of the Esil. Akmurza Rustembekov designed it and Mark Vaynshtein was chief structural engineer. A slender cylindrical shaft is wrapped in white branch-like girders that splay outwards to carry a gold-mirrored sphere twenty-two metres across. The form refers to the Turkic legend of the bird Samruk, which laid its egg in the branches of the tree of life, and the tower stands on the axis of Nurzhol Boulevard.
Two lifts take visitors to an observation deck set at ninety-seven metres inside the sphere, from which the planned boulevard, the Ak Orda presidential palace and the surrounding steppe are visible. The upper level holds the Ayaly Alaqan composition, a gilded handprint of Kazakhstan's first president, and the Bata globe carrying the signatures of seventeen religious leaders who attended the 2003 Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. A lower level contains an aquarium, a cafe and exhibition space.
Highlights
- Observation deck at 97 metres inside the gilded sphere
- Ayaly Alaqan gilded handprint composition
- Bata globe signed by leaders of seventeen faiths
- Axial view along Nurzhol Boulevard to the Ak Orda palace
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