Tallest Kazakhstan statue being installed in Shymkent

Baydibek Bi monument will be opened in Shymkent in several days and it will become the talles monument in Kazakhstan, Tengrinews.kz reports referring to Otyrar-tv.kz website. The sculpture will be 10 meters high and weigh 9 tones. The monument has similarities with the well-known Christ the Redeemer Statue in Rio-de-Janeiro. “We thought that there were plenty of equestrian statues in Shymkent. And we had no similarly monumental and well-shaped sculpture before. We have looked closely at different world statues, such as Rio-de-Janeiro statue, Volgograd monument, the Statue of Liberty and decided that we needed something alike in our city,” Bakhytzhan Ashirbayev, chief architect of the Southern Kazakhstan oblast said. According to the architect, after Baydibek Bi 'spreads his arms' over the city, new multi-storey buildings will be constructed around it. The monument will become a new tourist attraction of the southern city. BNews reports that the sculpture will be installed in one of the highest places sites of Shymkent, 220 meters above the sea level. Prominent sculptor Nassyr Rustemov is the author of the statue. Baydibek Karashauly (1356-1419) is a famous hero of Kazakh nation, a legendary ancestor of several Great Juz clans: Albans, Suan, Dulat, Sary Uysun, Shapyrashty, Ysty, Oshakty. He was a friend and fellow campaigner of Tamerlane (Timur the Lame), a Central Asian conqueror. He became famous for his justness, accuracy of speech, humanity and wisdom. Shymkent statue will possibly join the list of the highest statues of the world. 153-meter tall Vairocana Buddha Statue in China crowns the list.