Red Corner: Bizarre Kazakh Pyramid Completed

Megalomania has brought us some very bizarre architecture throughout history. It's nice to know that the dictator of Kazakhstan is keeping up the tradition.

Visitors to the capital of Astana, can now revel in a freaky new pyramid commissioned by President Nursultan Nazarbayev that has finally been completed.

The president had ordered the capital moved in 1997 to a barren spot in which he could build the perfect city and then went about hiring international architects to transform the wasteland into something progressive and, hopefully impressive.

The Pyramid of Peace and Accord is the first of these grandiose, foreign-designed projects to be completed in the new capital. Conceived by British architect Norman Foster, the pyramid stands 62 meters tall and includes a 1,500 seat opera house, and plenty of glass walls, steep angles and sheer drops.

Critics have been slow to respond. Perhaps they are hesitant to fly all the way to Kazakhstan to dissect a strange building ordered by a bizarre dictator, and yet built by a world-renowned architect.

In the meantime, stay tuned. Astana has a lot more architectural oddities on their way.

Filed under: Kazakhstan, Red Corner