Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Zaisan - Part 2

Thought we'd better try to continue our post about the Zaisan monument (see September 24th post).

Once you manage to climb the 650 or so stairs to get to the top of the hill, you find the main part of this memorial. It is rather well done and interesting to look at. It is, obviously, a circle with the inside of the circle containing the mural, part of which we are showing here. The mural is actually a mosaic of tile pieces, with different colors of tile used to form the actual images.

It seems to be a popular place and we saw a steady stream of people visiting here.

As mentioned before, this was built by the Soviets to commemorate the battles and victories the two countries fought during World War II. It is also here on top of the hill that Elder Maxwell dedicated this land for missionary work (see a copy of the dedicatory prayer in September 26th post). That prayer contains many promises which we are seeing come to pass even while we are here. Many think Mongolia will likely be the staging ground from where the Gospel can really be taken to other Asian lands which still remain closed to the Church.

And the view from up here is pretty spectacular, too! This is the view of the city from up top -- Ulaanbaatar (don't bother trying to pronounce it!), the capital city where we live and serve.
.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I really enjoy the history lessons and I love seeing all of your pictures! Thanks for putting them up! It looks amazing over there!

The Fendleys said...

The monument looks amazing! I didn't realize that the city was so big, wow!

Jason said...

I thought you'd stopped blogging there for a minute.

Jason said...

The city looks so colorful!

Bressler Bunch said...

The monument looked like it was out in the country until you showed the view of the city. Looks like it is kind of close?

REBYRYAN said...

I have seen pictures of this mural. It looks pretty cool. That is neat that you got to see it in person.

Mr C said...

To Jason--yes this city is very colorful. We've told you we get a lot of already expired food here. Well, I think we also get all the paint they mixed up (and messed up). We see buildings painted violet, bright orange, red, yellow, royal blue (and that could be all in one building!) We've heard the people were so tired of the drab colors the Soviets "made" them use, that color is "the thing!" And to Julie, yes it is very close (probably 2 kilometers). I'm sure that is part of why it is so popular.