22 June 2008 - A Visit to the Pyramid of Peace in Astana, Kazakhstan

A couple of weeks ago we visited the Pyramid of Peace, a magnificent building set on a hill with nothing but gardens all around it. It is fairly new and is directly behind the President's Palace at the other end of the government Mall. According to our guide, the height of the building is as tall as the length of one side of it's base. There are three stories underground, which is where the theater is and five levels that the elevator goes to and then a two or three story climb from there. This is a picture of the Pyramid taken from the entrance. It is quite a beautiful sight to see!!

The ground floor and lobby are all done in black marble and is quite dark. It was elegant buy very dimly lit. It would have prettier if there had been more light.

After seeing the theater on the ground floor, we walked up two flights of stairs into this big open room. It covers the entire floor and is the center of the pyramid. We are standing on the raised dome in the floor. There are art displays in the corners of the room. This dome is the center of the ceiling of the lobby.

We then took the elevator, which goes sideways, up to the 5th foor. From there, on up to the next floor, is a beautiful indoor garden with all kinds of different plants and the temperature always stays the same.

This is the garden which is planted around the walls of the building from here to the next level. It is so beautiful with the sun shinning in from the top of the pyramid!!

This picture is taken from the garden looking down at the dome. It was pretty scary taking this picture, but it looks cool! You can see people down on the dome where we were standing earlier.

On the top floor is this round table which has a whole in the center that you can see clear to the dome where we were standing earlier, many levels below. This is where the World Council of Churches met. Every window in the building is diamond shaped and those on the lower levels are bigger than these at the top.

Most of the windows have these beautiful white doves etched on them. Every dove is unique and is in a different position of flight. You can see the Presidents Palace in the background.

There are 130 doves representing the 130 nationalities that live peacefully in the country of Kazakhstan. This was actually one of the most beautiful features of the pyramid.

We had a wonderful tour of the building. Here we are leaving the Pyramid of Peace.

This monument is in front of the Pyramid. The four ladies at the top of the statue are holding up the four poles that cross at the top of the yurt signifying unity and strength.

Here are Mira and Anne on the grounds of the Pyramid of Peace. They are still doing a lot of landscaping. And from there to the President's Palace will be nothing but beautiful gardens of trees and flowers and shrubs. It is amazing to see all of the work they are doing on it.

Just to let you know, we did get our visa work finished and we can stay for another three months and then we get to do it again in September!! With them in hand, we hurried to the train station to purchase tickets for the NRT team and us for Kostanai. We felt good because we were a month early only to find that all of the tickets were gone!! So Plan B, we are now flying to Kostanai and shipping the equipment by train a week early and putting our trust in the Lord that it will get there safely. Never a dull moment here!! They told us things would get crazy about 3 weeks before the training and we are finding that to be true!!

It is getting hot here, but we are afraid to complain because we have felt the alternative! We are doing great and love what we are doing. We have another project approved for a handicapped orphanage which we are pretty excited about! And we are continually working on the paper work for the projects that are in progress. So we are keeping busy. We hope all of you are doing well.

We love and appreciate all of you so much. It's the prayers of family and friends that keep us going. The gospel is true and we hope that someday these people here in Astana will be able to hear about it!!

Love,

Elder and Sister Welling