Tourist Guide Ashgabat
Situated at the foot of the Kopet Dag Mountains, Ashgabat, capital and largest
city of Turkmenistan, lies in the Akhal Tekin oasis on the border of the Karakum
Desert.
Ashgabat is a relatively young city, growing out of an aul (Turkmen village)
in 1818.
The name of the city is believed to derive from the Persian Ashk-abad meaning
"the City of Arsaces". Its original founding fathers were Russian
troops who landed in Krasnovodsk (present-day Turkmenbashy) in 1869 and who
built a fortress on a high hill to accommodate their administration.
From 1924 until 1991, year of Turkmenistan’s independence, Ashkabad served
as the capital of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic.
Unfortunately, in October 1948 a terrible seism destroyed most of the city.
The inevitable process of reconstruction, carried out according to modern urban
planning, deeply modified Ashgabat into a pleasant modern city with wide avenues
and stately buildings that recall in their style ornamental patterns characteristic
of Turkmen traditional architecture.
Ashgabat has a primarily Sunni Muslim population.
