Hands On in the Baiterek Tower

When we travelled to Astana, we visited the Baiterek Tower. It’s a big golden ball sitting on top of a silver-coloured tower. It was built to commemorate the declaration of Astana as the capital of Kazakhstan. The ball, covered in gold-coloured glass, sits at 97 metres above the ground. 1997 was the year that Astana was declared to be the capital. You take an elevator up the to the ball. If you like, you can walk up another two flights of stairs to the top level, the one you see in the photo here. In the center of that level, there is a large malachite plinth. Surrounding it at the top is a large warriors belt, with many symbolic badges made of gold and silver. On top of that there is a 5 kg silver disc. Sitting on that is a triangular shaped 2 kg block of gold. The handprint of President Nazarbaev is imprinted into it. A guide explained the meaning of the tower to us in English. Visitors are urged to place their hands into the President’s handprint and to make a wish. As we awaited our turn to put our hands into the gold handprint, many Kazakhstani people preceded us. They took the ritual very seriously. Many obviously were there on a pilgrimage of sorts. Senior citizens in formal traditional dress were there. Young parents in their best clothes were there with their infant baby in a white dress. There was only a low hum of conversation. Finally it was our turn to place our hands into the handprint and to make a wish. Patriotic music began playing over the sound system as we touched the gold. There are very few non-Kazakhstani people who visit the tower. We were humbled and delighted to find that we were being honoured by the music as distinguished foreign visitors.

In the background of the photo, gold tinted because of the glass, you can see a few of the very modern buildings in Astana. We will soon post more pictures, Internet access allowing.