The glass pyramid that reveals Kazakhstan's ambitions

Golden handprint

Nursultan Nazarbayev himself is omnipresent in Astana, as the acknowledged architect of independent Kazakhstan.

On election day, I watched him vote in the People's Palace, to polite applause from other voters queuing to cast their ballot.

But one gets a better sense of his standing from the top of the Bayterek Tower - a symbolised slender poplar, a tree of life with a globe settled in its uppermost branches. In the middle of the viewing platform 100m up there is a podium, with a gold imprint of the president's hand embedded in a lectern.

Visitors are encouraged to place their own hand over the presidential imprint and to look out, down the impressive avenue of gardens and public buildings to the neo-classical presidential palace and Norman Foster's pyramid beyond.

"This way you can send a message to the president," an attendant urged me as I mounted the podium.

My telepathic powers failed me at that moment. But there is no doubt that Mr Nazarbayev is a man with a mission and that he is determined that nothing and no-one shall stop him.

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34001345

Astana: The Illuminati Capital of Kazakhstan

https://www.exutopia.com/dark-tourism-illuminati-capital/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YupHXNgaFX4

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