Turkmenistan 14

Today we are off around the Capitol City of Turkmenistan Ashgabat (Ashkhabad) with a population of close to a million.

The whole place looks like it bas built last year and everything is clad in white marble which comes from Italy (not sure how they get in into the country give the border controls we saw yesterday)

Ashgabat is a relatively young city, having grown out of a village of the same name established by Russian officers in 1881 after the Battle of Geok Tepe,

but it is not far from the site of Nisa, the ancient capital of the Parthian Empire, and it grew on the ruins of the Silk Road city of Konjikala,

It lies in an oasis at the northern foot of the Kopet-Dag range and on the edge of the Karakum (Turkmen: Garagum) Desert, about 19 miles (30 km) from the Iranian frontier.

Yes that is correct 19 miles from Iran but it is over a mountain range so no fear of accidently stumbling across an unmarked border.

Anyway we have sights to see so off to the very ancient city of Nisa here is what the book says

Traces of human activity dating back to the 4th-2nd millennia BC show that long before the beginning of the Parthian Empire the area of Nisa was already colonized by sedentary populations. It is believed that there was a large settlement there as early as the 1st millennium BCE. Nisa underwent a major development in the mid 3rd century BC, when impressive buildings were erected by the Parthians, who decided to build a royal residence, probably the first of the Parthian dynasty. The name of the site, Mithradatkert, and an indication of the date of its foundation are known from an inscription written on one of the 2,700 administrative ceramics (ostraka) found at Nisa. Mithradatkert means ‘the fortress of Mithidrat,’ referring to King Mithradat I (174-138 BC).

The down side is that is it another place the Mongols did for, and after several thousand years it went the way of many of these ancient places although it is believed that there are lots of things yet to be dug up.

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The place is on an outcrop with a huge flat plain below and huge mountains in the distance over which you could fine Iran.

Now there is an illuminated path we can see not too far from us and it is famous as part of “Health Week” where the president decreed that everyone should walk up this path as part of a health drive.

Now a couple of points to note a) it can get up to 115 degrees here during the day so the walk is done at night and the path is lit. all of the government cabinet had to complete this and the president congratulated each one of them at the summit (he came up by helicopter).

Next is the mausoleum of the late president (the helicopter guy) Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov died in 2006 and lies with his family in Turkmenbashi Ruhy Mosque or Gypjak Mosque in the village of Gypjak about 7 kilometres west of the city. I think the mosque now dwarfs the village which was his birth place. The current President is less of a totalitarian and you see less of him than his predecessor.

There are of course no pictures allowed inside but again the gardeners (who outnumber the visitors) are all completely covered up to protect themselves from the sun and the heat.

Well for lunch we have a challenge we are going to another bazaar and we have to find our own lunch, first we have to get some more Manat though.