The golden sphere
Samruk's egg.
Matti Blume — CC BY-SA 4.0 · t_y_l — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Alex J. Butler from United Kingdom — CC BY 2.0 · Vyacheslav Bukharov — CC BY-SA 4.0 · t_y_l — CC BY-SA 2.0 · t_y_l — CC BY-SA 2.0 · t_y_l — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Vyacheslav Bukharov — CC BY-SA 4.0
Astana's best-known symbol, a 105 m monument and observation tower in the middle of Nurzhol Boulevard whose name means «tall poplar tree». It was built to mark the move of the capital from Almaty to Astana in 1997 and designed by the Kazakh architect Akmurza Rustembekov. The tower embodies a folk tale of the tree of life and Samruk, a magic bird of happiness that laid her golden egg between two of its branches: white branches wrap its shaft and cradle a gleaming gold sphere 22 m across. Two lifts inside the shaft rise to the observation deck in the sphere at 97 m, with 360-degree views of the new city: the presidential palace and golden towers on one side, the Khan Shatyr tent on the other. The upper level holds a gilded handprint of Nursultan Nazarbayev, the first president, where visitors place a hand and make a wish. Tickets are about 2,000 tenge, per visitor guides. Go up just before sunset, then see the tower lit from the boulevard at night.
Samruk's egg.
360-degree views.
From the boulevard.
Nurzhol Boulevard, central Astana
«Tall poplar tree»; it embodies the tale of the tree of life and the Samruk bird's golden egg, with a viewing deck at 97 m.
