Turkmenistan

Ashgabat — the capital of Turkmenistan (a closed Central Asian republic of 488,000km², 6 million people, one of the world’s last remaining totalitarian states — ranking alongside North Korea in press freedom and political openness) — the most extraordinary urban environment in post-Soviet Asia: a city of white marble skyscrapers, gold-domed mosques, a giant golden rotating statue of the first president Turkmenbashi, and one of the lowest population densities of any world capital city, all built from natural gas revenues.

💡 Ashgabat holds the Guinness World Record for the highest density of white marble-clad buildings in the world — the entire city centre was rebuilt from scratch between 1991 and 2010 using Makrana marble imported from India, following the megalomaniac instructions of President Saparmurat Niyazov (Turkmenbashi — Father of all Turkmen, 1991–2006), who renamed months of the year after himself and his mother, banned beards and opera, and commissioned a golden rotating statue of himself that always faced the sun.

The Neutrality Monument (a 75m tripod structure topped by a gold rotating statue of Turkmenbashi — Turkmenistan declared permanent neutrality in 1995, the only country with such a UN-recognised status — originally in the city centre, moved to the suburbs when it obstructed a new building project) and the Earthquake Monument (dedicated to the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake that killed 10,000–176,000 people and destroyed virtually the entire city — the scale of death is disputed because Stalin suppressed the true figure).

💡 The 1948 Ashgabat earthquake (October 6, 1948 — a 7.3 magnitude earthquake that struck at 1:12am while most people were asleep) killed between 10,000 and 176,000 people depending on source — the Soviet authorities suppressed the true figure for decades and the census data was falsified. Most modern estimates put the death toll at 110,000–130,000 — approximately two-thirds of Ashgabat’s entire population at the time. The earthquake is the single deadliest event in Turkmen history.

Merv (UNESCO World Heritage — 30km east of Mary, the ruins of one of the greatest cities of the Silk Road — a succession of ancient cities of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Sasanian, Arab, Seljuk and Mongol periods spread across 60km², including the Sultan Sanjar Mausoleum (1157 AD — the finest surviving Seljuk building in Central Asia, with the original turquoise-tiled dome still intact after 870 years) and the round city of Gyaur Kala (3rd century BC — a perfectly circular Hellenistic city plan visible from the air).

💡 Merv (ancient Margiana, later Marw — one of the five largest cities in the medieval world at its height under the Seljuk Turks in the 11th century, with a population of approximately 200,000) was destroyed by the Mongol armies of Tolui Khan in 1221 in one of the worst urban massacres of the medieval period — contemporary sources (possibly exaggerated) claim 700,000–1.3 million inhabitants killed. The city never fully recovered; the ruins now cover 60km² of desert steppe.

The Darvaza Gas Crater (“The Door to Hell” — a 70m-wide by 20m-deep crater in the Karakum Desert that has been burning continuously since 1971, when Soviet geologists accidentally drilled into a natural gas cavern, causing the ground to collapse and the gas to ignite — the decision to burn it off to prevent methane poisoning was expected to extinguish in a few weeks; it has been burning for over 50 years, the most surreal geological spectacle in Central Asia).

💡 The Darvaza Gas Crater has been burning continuously since 1971 — 50+ years. The decision to set the gas alight (to prevent the deadly methane from spreading to surrounding villages) was expected to extinguish within a few days as the pocket burned out. The gas pocket has proved to be much larger than expected; geologists estimate the reserve could continue burning for decades or even centuries. President Berdymukhammedov ordered the crater extinguished in 2022; the order was not implemented.

Konye-Urgench (UNESCO World Heritage — the ruins of the capital of the Khorezm Empire (11th–13th century) on the Amu Darya delta — with the Kutlug-Timur Minaret (60m — the tallest minaret in Central Asia, built in the 11th century, still standing to its full height after 900 years) and the Turabek-Khanum Mausoleum (1370 AD — an extraordinary geometric muqarnas ceiling, one of the finest examples of medieval Islamic architectural mathematics in existence).

💡 The Kutlug-Timur Minaret (60m, built in the 11th century, the tallest remaining medieval minaret in Central Asia) is the most remarkable surviving monument of the Khorezm Empire — a state that at its height in 1215 AD controlled all of Central Asia and parts of modern Iran, before being completely destroyed by Genghis Khan in 1220. The Mongol destruction of Khorezm was so complete that the Amu Darya permanently changed its course, cutting off the city from its water supply.

Yangykala Canyon (a remote canyon in the Balkan Region of western Turkmenistan — layers of red, ochre, white and pink Cretaceous limestone carved by ancient river erosion into a 60m-deep canyon system extending for 25km, the finest desert canyon scenery in Central Asia, accessible only by 4WD and rarely visited — the colours intensify dramatically at sunset, the canyon glowing red and gold against the Karakum sky).

💡 The Yangykala Canyon (a Cretaceous limestone formation in western Turkmenistan deposited when the Karakum Desert was the floor of the ancient Tethys Sea — the geological predecessor of the Caspian Sea, Aral Sea and Mediterranean — approximately 80 million years ago) contains visible marine fossils in the canyon walls: ammonites, belemnites and sea urchins deposited on the seafloor and now exposed at 100m elevation in the middle of one of the world’s most arid deserts.

Nohur (a mountain village in the Kopet Dag Mountains on the Iranian border — an isolated community of approximately 5,000 people who maintain a highly distinct culture including the traditional practice of decorating house gates with wolf and goat skulls, a custom believed to ward off evil spirits, pre-Islamic in origin, and the distinctive Nohur embroidery style with its blue and red geometric patterns on white cotton — one of the most authentic traditional villages in Turkmenistan). Fly from Ashgabat (ASB).

💡 The Nohur people (an isolated ethnic group in the Kopet Dag mountains of Turkmenistan, believed by some ethnographers to descend from a pre-Turkic Parthian population) maintain wolf skull rituals (attaching wolf heads to gateposts as protective talismans — a practice documented since at least the 18th century) that have no parallel elsewhere in Central Asia. Their embroidery tradition is distinct from mainstream Turkmen carpet and textile work.