Ashgabat - city of ......
September 12 in Turkmenistan ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
Whatever words you might use to describe Turkmenistans capital, Ashgabat, there would always be more that spring to mind. Surreal, dystopian, futuristic, fantastical, authoritarian, breathtaking, vibrant, Orwellian..... the list can go on with a wide variety of adjectives.
Its nickname is the city of lovers yet others seem more appropriate: city of contradictions, white city, city of the future.
It's actually a very young city, founded in about 1920 then virtually completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1948, rebuilt by the Soviets and finally, since a "Golden Age" was announced by the president in 2000, the city centre has been transformed by magnificent buildings and giant monuments made of marble. It's in the Guinness book of World Records for the most marble buildings in a city! (We'll gloss over the fact most of the marble is imported from Iran or China...)
Coming from the desert region, our driver has to show his documents before we can drive into the Ashgabat District. What's more, window shades are not allowed, so Birgit has to lower hers and sit in the sun instead. Just before reaching the city, we need to swap cars as the two we have been using in the desert are not allowed to enter the city.
The roads are worthy of an Oil-rich state - four lanes wide in each direction, illuminated by white, specially designed lights. But, hardly any traffic, not exactly a ghost city but the immediate impression is it's over the top for the needs of the normal citizen.
And the buildings are truly awesome. Huge, fantastic designed edifices spread around (this is not a walking city). Most seem to be universities, specialist medical centres or government departments. Indeed, if you work in a government department you also live in a block for civil servants of the department!
The parks are also massive and intricately designed and manicured. The roundabouts all have huge statues or centrepieces depicting something.
It's like no other place we've been to.
After an hour to freshen up we start our tour by going to the National Museum. It's as magnificent inside as it is outside, internally built with Italian marble. Only 2 floors are relevant, the first being all about ancient times, Alexander the Great and origins of the region. The second floor seems more about the current president, Turkmenistan position in the world i.e. a neutral country, and finally, a large section about horses! Somehow they missed out the part of the history of being part of the Russian empire in the 1800's and the Soviet empire in the 1900's....
Anyway, it's back on the bus towards Nisa - post Alexander the Great, the Parthians made Nisa an important royal centre from aenbashisround the 3rd century BC. Our visit there will be covered in a separate post but in the meantime we passed a few interesting monuments.
As mentioned above, TM is very proud of its neutrality. Thus they have a couple of monuments proclaiming that. In 1995, the UN formally recognised TM's status of permanent neutrality. The Monument of Neutrality commemorates this. Originally built in 1998 in the city centre, it is a huge three-legged structure topped by a golden statue of Turkmenistan's first president, Saparmurat Niyazov (Turkmenbashi).
Famously, the original statue rotated during the day so that Niyazov always faced the sun. The monument was dismantled and rebuilt on the outskirts of Ashgabat in 2010; the statue is still on top, but no longer rotates. I have to say it looked more like a space rocket to me 😂
Then we had a brief stop at the Independence monument. This celebrates TM becoming independent from the Soviet Union on 27 October 1991.
It's one of Ashgabat's characteristically enormous white-marble complexes. The central tower is 91 metres high with the final top part another 27 metres — therefore a symbolic number referring to 27 October 1991 . (We found out that symbolism is a big part of Ashgabat.) Around the monument are statues of important figures from Turkmen history, landscaped gardens and fountains.
Our final sightseeing stop was just outside Ashgabat for the mosque and mausoleum of Turkmenbashi. He designed it all himself and it was completed in 2004, two years before his death. Located in the village he was born in, it is another magnificent building. It's one of Central Asia's largest mosques, accommodating around 10,000 worshippers - women can pray on the upper floor whilst man use the main floor. Unusually—and controversially—the walls contain quotations not only from the Qur'an, but also from Turkmenbashi's own Ruhnama, his book of spiritual, moral and national teachings. The story goes that the Turkish builders of mosques around TM refused to build it because of this. So instead he found a French company who did it for the right price - not that we know how much it cost!
Just next door is the mausoleum he is buried in with the rest of his family.
Sightseeing done for now we headed for our guides favourite bar/restaurant in an older suburb of the city. It was totally western and the complete opposite of what we had been looking at the past few hours.
Finally on the way back to our hotel (in Ashgabat everything has to close by 11 pm), we admired all the buildings again but this time all illuminated. It was like Las Vegas, but spread over a much wider area.
What a surreal yet fascinating place. I could have easily spent another day there.Read more