I might be the only person who is actually a Freemason, to respond to this. My bona-fides: a long-time member of a Regular Grand Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons, in the US as well as a member of the York Rite, and 32nd Degree, KCCH, of the Scottish Rite.
I'm going to try to correct some of the mistaken claims made here.
- Kazakhstan was a dictatorship for 30 years, and dictators do not like Freemasonry, since it teaches that all men are equal, and it has oaths that bind members to silence about things told them in confidence (murder and treason excepted). One of the first things that Hitler did when he came to power was to search and seize Masonic Lodges in Germany and Austria, and to hunt down Masons, many of whom he put into concentration camps, or just executed. All Masonic Lodges that had been operating in areas the Nazis controlled, were suppressed.
Nazarbayev has never been a Freemason. There was no Grand Lodge in Kazakhstan until 2016 when it was formed under a charter granted by the Grand Lodge of Russia. Did Nazarbayev give his permission for this to happen? Almost certainly. But that does not make him a Mason, or even favorable towards Freemasonry. - Pyramids are not part of Masonic symbology. They are not even mentioned in any Regular Masonic rituals, nor depicted on any Masonic materials, such as on tracing-boards. To find pyramids in anything connected to Masonry, one would have to go to a clandestine organization like the "Memphis-Mizraim" group.
- Under "Pyramid as symbol", it says "This sun has 33 sun rays (masonic number) surrounded by what appears to be another masonic symbol, the square and compass."
"33" is not a Masonic number in Craft Masonry; it is only significant to the Scottish Rite, which is an Appendant Body of Freemasonry. The symbols around the "sun" look nothing like a Masonic Square & Compass.
"On the ground floor, we find another a corresponding sun on the marble floor with square and compass shaped pillars in the main atrium...From the sky, the shapes of the masonic square and compass area clearly visible, while the center square also resembles the eye of Horus / All Seeing Eye...The main support columns also bear a striking resemblance to the square and compass..." etc.
Again, those look nothing like a Masonic Square & Compass. You seem to be suggesting that any chevron shape is like a Square & Compass. It isn't. The Square & Compass is a very specific shape: the Square is always a 90-degree angle, fairly thick, with arms that are often of slightly unequal lengths, and the Compass is an angle of always less than 90-degrees (60 or 72-degrees are common). BUT the critical thing is that in Masonic symbology, the Square & Compass are ALWAYS overlapping. Without that, it isn't a Masonic symbol. And here, there are no overlapping angles of 90-degrees, and angles of less than 90-degrees. NOT MASONIC. You might as well claim that the structure of a yurt, with its overlapping wooden struts, form interlocking angles, and therefore must be Masonic. 🙄 - As with the pyramid, the "eye of Horus" has nothing to do with Regular Freemasonry. The "All-seeing Eye" (more accurately known as the "Eye of Providence" is indeed a Masonic symbol, but the 2 arcs shown from the aerial view of the Baiterek Tower, look nothing like it. The Eye of Providence is always depicted realistically (not like some geometrical arrangement of 2 arcs).
- "Golden Towers as Symbols: twin pillars called ‘Joachim’ and ‘Boaz’ that stand on either side of masonic temples."
"Jachin and Boaz" do not "stand on either side of Masonic Temples"; they stand inside, flanking a doorway. They are not golden; they are (at least nominally) bronze. And they are ALWAYS topped by two globes, and other specific decorations.
NOT MASONIC. - Presidental Palace: "like we see on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, we have a clear masonic square and compass projecting outward from a power center"
Nonsense. Where is the Square? The aerial photo you show doesn't have anything that looks remotely like a square, and in the manipulated photo, which has a square-type shape applied, it is like 120-degrees! Not a Square, and NOT Masonic. - Neither phoenixes nor owls are Masonic symbols.
Astana is an amazing city, and it has certainly been laid-out with an eye towards geometry. And there are certainly structures that have symbolic import, such as the Baiterek, but these are largely indigenous symbols from traditions like Tengriism (practiced on the Eurasian Steppe for perhaps 2,000 years). That in itself is a fascinating thing. To try to spin it as if it is Masonic is simply a fantasy without any grounding in reality.