Touring Ashgabat

Our group set off at 8:30 this morning in a mini bus – white, of course – for a jam-packed day of sightseeing around the White City. We learned that all the buildings have been built in the last 34 years since the country gained freedom from the Soviet Union.

Our first destination was the Independence Monument. It was built by the first president of Turkmenistan and includes 20 giant sculptures of Turkmen famous in the country’s history. It’s a large property that’s beautifully landscaped. Interestingly, we weren’t allowed to go into the monument; only government officials and dignitaries are allowed access.

There was a lot of cleaning and fixing going on on the property because the Independence Day celebration is coming up on September 27. (The actual Independence Day is in October but it was moved to September when Turkmenistan hosted the Asian Games and the president wanted to celebrate Independence Day during the games. It has remained in September ever since.)

Next stop, we visited the Neutrality Monument which is currently under renovation. Turkmenistan, like Switzerland, has declared itself neutral.

From there, we visited a horse farm. Turkmenistan has a genetically unique breed of horses and one particularly unusual horse called the golden horse. They have unusually short, soft hair and skinny legs. We were led around the stables, and then a jockey brought the horses out on parade individually.

A mosque was next on the tour, followed by the Seyit Jamal ad-Din architectural complex built in the XV century. It’s considered one of Turkmenistan’s architectural treasures though it was damaged during the 1948
earthquake. Given it’s important in Turkmenistan’s architectural history, it wasn’t surprising that a university class of architectural students was on site.

They were quite curious about this tourist group and welcomed our chatting with them. They were keen to practice their English. I stopped to ask them about which architects they liked and they had little knowledge of architects outside of Turkmenistan and were captivated when I gave them names of architects that they could look up online from Frank Ghery to Le Corbusier to Gaudi. They then asked me if I had an Instagram account they could follow. I should find a number of new followers when I eventually have cellular service and can check my account. They were absolutely delightful.

We then visited the mausoleum and mosque for the first president. He initiated its design and construction while he was still living. His father was killed during the Second World War and his mother and two siblings were killed in the 1948 earthquake, along with about 160,000 others. He was orphaned at the age of eight. He designed the mausoleum to be a family mausoleum with crypts for each of his family members. The father‘s crypt however, is empty because his remains from the second world war were never recovered. Both the mausoleum and mosque are opulent. The mosque’s capacity is 10,000 people.

Next, we visited a UNESCO world heritage site called Old Nisa, a sanctuary for Parthian kings from the late 3rd century BC to the early 3rd century AD. The 1948 earthquake damaged some of the site but restorations have been ongoing.

Our final stop was a bazaar quite unlike the markets and bazaars that we have visited in other parts of the world. There was little chaos. There were stalls selling everything from tourist souvenirs to vegetables, meats and cheeses.

We returned to the hotel, had a bit of quiet time and then had a casual dinner with some of our travel companions. A wonderful but exhausting day.Read more