The pyramidical portion of the building is 62 metres high and sits on a earth-covered block. All of this construction is above ground level. Though the landscaping of the
Presidential Park rises up to cover the lower levels, these are not basements. The structure is made up of five "stories" of triangles, each of which is 12m in length per side. The lower portion, made of three "stories" of triangles, is clad in pale
granite. The upper two rows of triangles, four triangles per side, are clad in 9700 square feet of modern stained glass, an artwork by architectural artist
Brian Clarke which forms the glazed apex, and incorporates ceramic glaze screen-printed imagery of pigeons in flight, as do the twenty eight diamond-shaped stained glass windows on the four sides of the lower level of the building, which total 1076 square feet. Due to the extreme climate of the city, the engineers locked down one corner of the pyramid, and placed the three other corners on bridge bearings, a common technique for building bridges, but used in a building for the first time. The Pyramid contains accommodations for different religions, including Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Daoism, and other faiths. It also houses a 1,300-seat opera house, a national museum of culture, a new "university of civilization", a library and a research center for Kazakhstan's ethnic and geographical groups. This diversity is unified within the pure form of a pyramid, 62 m (203 ft) high with a 62x62m (203x203ft) base. The building is conceived as a global center for religious understanding, the renunciation of violence and the promotion of faith and human equality. The Pyramid of Peace expresses the spirit of Kazakhstan, where cultures, traditions and representatives of various nationalities coexist in peace, harmony and accord. Bathed in the golden and pale blue glow of the stained glass (colors taken from the
Kazakhstan flag), 200 delegates from the world's main religions and faith meet every three years in a circular chamber based on the United Nations Security Council meeting room in New York. The building was designed by the British architects
Foster and Partners (lead design). Turkish architectural firm
Tabanlıoğlu Architects undertook construction information packages for the Foster design; engineers
Buro Happold undertook lead structural and services design. == Gallery ==