Beatles Monument on Kok Tobe, Almaty

The Beatles monument in Almaty is a bronze group on Kok Tobe, the hilltop park above the city. John Lennon sits on a bench with a guitar while Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr stand behind him. Almaty sculptor Eduard Kazaryan made it, and it opened on 15 May 2007 after a campaign by local Beatles fans.

How Almaty's Beatles fans got their monument

The idea came from local fans. Our main source here is a report in the Almaty newspaper Novoye Pokoleniye from May 2007, the week the monument opened.

In 2002 two people pushed the idea. Rinat Shayakhmetov, an Almaty Beatles fan, had been moved by the Lennon celebrations in New York that October. Journalist Arsen Bayanov, a former drummer of the Kazakh band Dos-Mukasan, called that year for a Beatles site in Almaty. In 2003 fans formed an initiative group, led by Shayakhmetov, to make it happen.

The money came in summer 2005. The Seimar Social Fund, a charitable foundation, gave a grant under its "My City – Almaty" programme and ran a competition among Kazakh sculptors and architects. An expert panel chose Eduard Kazaryan.

Permission came from Apple Corps, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the Mayor of Liverpool, and MEP Struan Stevenson helped secure it. Some older write-ups add approval from Yoko Ono and George Harrison's family. We found no reliable source for either.

The site wasn't the one fans first had in mind, the 2007 report notes. The Kok Tobe administration offered the hilltop, and the monument opened there on 15 May 2007, at the launch of a national music award, Muzykalnaya Fishka 2007. At the time it was described as the first and only monument to show all four Beatles together.

What the monument looks like

Lennon sits at one end of a bench holding a guitar. McCartney, Harrison and Starr stand behind him. One English travel guide says the three are seated, but the opening report and the other sources describe them standing. The free space on the bench next to Lennon is meant for visitors to sit in.

Speakers around the monument play Beatles songs nonstop. The group is lit after dark, and Kok Tobe is a popular spot at sunset. The Kok Tobe TV tower is about 500 m away, and the "I Love Almaty" sign is on the same hilltop.

A Tengrinews city guide lists three dates Beatles fans in Almaty mark: 16 January, World Beatles Day, which is the anniversary of the Cavern Club opening; 18 June, McCartney's birthday; and 18 August, the anniversary of the band's first gig with Ringo.

Getting up to Kok Tobe

Most visitors take the cable car. Its lower station is at 104B Dostyk Avenue. Guides sometimes say you board "at the Arman cinema" or "at the Palace of the Republic"; those are nearby bus stops, roughly 200 to 300 m from the station. Abay metro station is about 900 m away. Buses 95 and 99 go up the hill, and taxis take the winding road to the top.

The 2018 claim that Liverpool copied it

In November 2018 a new bronze of the four Beatles around a bench appeared just inside the Rubber Soul complex on Mathew Street in Liverpool. The next month Margulan Seisembay, a Kazakh businessman linked to the Seimar fund, said in comments reported by Tengrinews that it copied Kazaryan's Almaty design and that Seimar holds the rights.

Treat that as an allegation. The Liverpool press release and NME's report described the group as a new commission by the complex's owners, Pub Invest Group, and neither mentioned Almaty. We found no ruling or settlement either way. The Liverpool bench is a few steps from the John Lennon statue on Mathew Street.

Looking for the Independence Monument in Almaty?

Many people land on this page while searching for Kazakhstan's Independence Monument. It's a different monument in a different part of the city. It stands in Republic Square (Ploshchad Respubliki) in central Almaty, about 2.5 km west of the Beatles monument in a straight line, down off the hill.

It was unveiled on 16 December 1996, the fifth anniversary of Kazakhstan's independence. The centre is a 28 m stele, shaped after the kulpytas grave stones of the Mangyshlak region, topped by a 6 m figure of the Golden Man (Altyn Adam) standing on a winged snow leopard, so it rises about 34 m in all. The author group was led by architect Shota-Aman Valikhanov, working with sculptors Adilet Zhumabay and Nurlan Dalbay and architect Kazybek Zharylgapov. The whole complex runs 180 m and includes ten bronze reliefs of Kazakh history.

One odd episode: in October 2007 thieves stole the monument's bronze book with the president's handprint. It was back in place about three weeks later.

For other Beatles and Lennon tributes around the world, see the map or the memorials list.