Ashgabat

Ashgabat
Ashgabat, formerly Ashkhabad, capital and largest city of Turkmenistan, in the southwestern part of the country, about 25 km (about 15 mi) north of the border with Iran. Ashgabat lies in an oasis near the Garagum desert and the rugged Köpetdag range. The city is known for its handwoven carpets, made from locally produced cotton and karakul wool. Other manufactures include pumps, engines, glass, and textiles. The sprawling desert and towering mountain peaks outside the city attract filmmakers to Ashgabat. The city is the site of the Turkmen Academy of Sciences, a university, and a museum of fine arts.

In the late 1870s Russian soldiers and Turkmen tribes fought over the Ashgabat region, a struggle that culminated in 1881 in the battle of Gökdepe, near the present site of the city. The Russians defeated the Turkmens and subsequently built a fort and settlement at the junction of caravan routes, naming the oasis town for a nearby Turkmen settlement. Major growth began when Ashgabat became a station on the Trans-Caspian Railroad in 1885. The Russians soon named Ashgabat the capital of the Transcaspian Oblast.

The Soviet regime renamed the city Poltoratsk in 1919 to honor a local hero of the Russian Revolution. However, the original name was restored a few years later. The city served as the capital of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic from 1924 until 1991, when Turkmenistan became an independent republic.

Built in a major fault zone, Ashgabat was reduced to rubble by a massive earthquake in 1948. About 110,000 people perished in the earthquake. Reconstruction soon followed, with the new settlement modeled on the earlier city layout.

Chronic water shortages caused by continuing population growth were eased in 1962 when the Garagum Canal—one of the world’s longest canals—reached Ashgabat. Today this engineering feat pulls water from the Amu Darya, a river located about 600 km (about 375 mi) to the east, and transports it to many destinations, including Ashgabat. But the diversion of water to urban and agricultural centers via this canal has led to environmental problems, including the gradual draining and desiccation of the Aral Sea. Population 605,000 (1999 estimate).

Kipchak Mosque