“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain
I’m still not sure what made this trip so impactful. It felt far far away and very different. I had lots of time to travel alone on either end of my tour, walking 30k steps a day trying to figure out how life ticked. Even after lots of processing and reflection I’m not sure my words or photos will be able to fully explain it what I saw and learned.
Turkmenistan is a land locked Central Asian country of 7 million, 80% of which is desert. It’s situated on the Silk Road and thus for thousands of years it has been traversed and influenced by traders and the world’s great conquerers, including Alexander the Great and Ghengis Kahn, then controlled by Russia and later the Soviet Union. It’s been tightly ruled since its independence from the USSR by three extremely authoritarian leaders.
Today it’s one of the least visited countries in the world. The country has ample wealth because it sits on the fourth largest reserves of natural gas and the wealth has been used to build one of the most unusual places I’ve ever been, often using white Italian marble to clearly project grandeur. My 8 day visit to this largely unknown place was fascinating and full of surprises.
Click HERE to see my full set of pictures from Turkmenistan
This trip really touched me. Perhaps it was the fascinating totally differentness of the place. I also think it was having so many days to wander off the grid, lost in my thoughts, focusing on discovery and nurturing my curiosity. Whatever it was it definitely reignited my love of travel again. Posting this final batch of pictures, closes the trip. That makes me a little sad. I’ve been enjoying looking at the pictures, processing, researching and reading more and just wallowing in travel zen, but onward, so here you go!
Ashgabat, the capital city of Turkmenistan, is a place filled with new giant white marble buildings, that feel modern and aspirational towards the future. It has strangely wide boulevards and oddly empty streets. It all feels a little other worldly, but I’m not exactly sure why.
Where as people in the north of the county were so friendly and eager to connect, the strict authoritarian control clearly kept people in Ashgabat wary of strangers. Almost no one would allow me to take a picture, but my memories are filled with images of all the incredible traditional dress the women wore everywhere all the time. Speckles of rich color were such a contrast to all the white.
Since independence from the Soviet Union in 1992, the leaders of Turkmenistan have been trying to create their own vision for the city and country. In Ashgabat that meant tearing down Soviet style buildings and constructing hundreds of ornate white marble buildings decorated in gold that glisten powerfully in the sun. It’s over the top and so hard to describe, but I couldn’t get enough of it.
My tour group left and I stayed for four extra days by myself. With no internet outside my hotel, it was travel old style. No ability to keep googling ideas of where to go, so instead I followed my curiosity and walked and walked.
At night the buildings are lit up in bright over the top Vegas style. In a country with lots of oil and natural gas energy consumption is clearly not a worry.
The city holds the Guinness Book of Records title for most white marble on earth. It’s said that the white is for love and luck. It also reflects the brutal sun. Temps reach up to 150’ in the summer.
The first post Soviet leader was a quirky man. He loved making Guinness records like most fountains, tallest flag pole and largest indoor ferris wheel. And also coming up with random rules like saying all cars have to be white, outlawing dogs because he didn’t like the way they smell, the use of makeup by television presenters, gold teeth and beards. (Upon thought, I bet the banning of beards is to control Islamic fundamentalism, but no one told me that.)
Large gold statues and huge pictures of the post Soviet leaders are up around the city remind everyone who is in control. With tight authoritarian rule that stifles free speech, adding to the lack of English speakers, I couldn’t get the real story of how life was there. My perspective is led by one great travel book, two guides, and a long conversation I had with a local at the American Center. It’s not enough to really understand which is probably why I remain rather mystified. I’m so glad I went though, but it’s always good to be reminded how different things are around the world.
The irony of Defying Gravity coming up on my phone as I look at a group young Turkmen college aged women and ponder their totally controlled unfree lives.
That time when the ladies at the restaurant were looking over my shoulder checking out the pictures on my phone and giggling, then asked me to take a picture of them and when I did they giggled more I heard Tik Tok amidst their Turkmen words. If only I could make them Tik Tok famous.
When I travel I definitely like being from New York City! I love when people ask where I’m from I can just say that and don’t even need to say America/United States, especially when saying my country’s name is almost an ugly word these days. Then one night in Ashgabat when I said New York the waiter’s face lit up and he mumbled something that made me think that maybe bar had some NYC connection. Later I noticed Broadway musical wall paper and other little details like this mural. Yes, the greatest city in the world…
Turkmenistan is 95% Muslim, but it is a secular country. During the Soviet times religion was repressed and many of the mosques were closed and people were forced to practice in private at home. After independence practicing Islam was encouraged again, but it was stressed to us that the government is very wary of religious fundamentalism and keeps a close eye on religious activity. I saw very few obvious mosques and almost no active call to prayer, which feels very different than other Islamic countries I have been to. The Turmenbashi Ruhy Mosque is big and sparkly mosques, but it seemed more for show than for daily religious practice.
These days there are no madrassas (religious schools) in Turkmenistan. Anyone wanting to study to be an imam has to go to Turkey to train. This is part of the effort to keep Turkmenistan secular. In Uzbekistan there is a bit more, but still there is only one madrassa allowed in each of the 12 territories of the country.
The biggest evidence of how little the presence of Islam was is that I don't have any picture to show Islam in practice there.
Spotted this t-shirt on a woman waiting for the bus in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, asked to take a picture, which led to a lovely conversation. She had just gotten back from 6 months visiting her daughter in NYC. Her daughter left Turkmenistan after college to teach in China. Next stop she headed to the States and now is a NYC public school principal in a primarily Chinese district and loves it there. Also the two pictures she showed me from her trip to NY were of her trip to the Statue of Liberty and when she went skydiving! Yay America! Yay immigrants!
Built in 2004 by Turkmenistan’s first post Soviet leader, Saparmurat Niyazov, or later self named Türkmenbaşy, Türkmenbaşy Ruhy Mosque in Ashgabat is the largest mosque in Central Asia. The vast prayer room can hold 10,000 pilgrims, with 7,000 men on the main floor and 3,000 women on the second level.
Beside the mosque there is a smaller version that is Türkmenbaşy’s family mausoleum. Unfortunately no photos were allowed there because it had some kookie things I wish I could look back more closely at.
During his time of leadership, Türkmenbaşy wrote a new spiritual guide and a kind of origin story for Turkmenistan. One guide told me that after 100 years under Russian control Turkmen people had to be reminded of their culture, values and history, so he created this book for them. The book was called the Ruhnama (The Book of the Soul,) and it was taught in schools and read in homes.
So… when he built this mosque he inscribed the walls of the mosque with verses from both the Quran and the Ruhnama. This, unsurprisingly, outraged many Muslims, who believed that passages from the Quran should be given far more reverence than Niyazov’s modern book of rambling moral guidance, and should not appear alongside each other. Even more incendiary was one particular quotation inscribed prominently on the entry arch to the mosque, which reads "The Ruhnama is the holiest book and the Quran is the book of Allah."
I heard that because of the Ruhnama quotes almost no one attends this mosque for religious services. It exists for tourists like me and use during special events meant to promote Türkmenbaşy’s memory or the current leader’s authority.
Like many things in Turkmenistan it’s for show. Really all I can say is it was very impressive and quite lovely to be almost alone in.
I spent one day in Ashgabat with a female guide and she and I had fun chatting about what life is like for women in Turkmenistan and NYC. I learned more about how arranged marriages work and heard that changes have been happening to help women gain success and respect in the workplace. And she was in awe of my bravery for traveling alone and being able to live as a single woman. There is definitely a pull toward old societal ways with things like strict conservative traditional dress and rules that girls and women should spend all their time with their families. but it felt nice to see her ambition in guiding and translating and hear about her life dreams.
Some of the highlights of our day were visiting a hidden wedding dress shop, where they dressed me up in the outfit that a bride wears for 40 days before her wedding. And yes, it’s heavy!!
Since I was visiting right after Ramadan, it was wedding season and I asked to check out the Ashgabat Wedding Palace, where many weddings take place and many brides and grooms stop to take photos.
I also took advantage or her “let's go wherever you want to go” attitude, and had her bring me to the Yyldyz Hotel, the fanciest and most prominent hotel in Ashgabat that has beautiful views of the city below and over the top design. It was fun to be in a place with so few tourists. When I was with kind of felt like I was welcome everywhere.
We also went to see the famous Akhal-Teke horses. They are a national symbol of Turkmenistan and appear on the country's coat of arms and currency. This horse also can also be seen on stamps and in many monuments. It’s an ancient breed with a history that dates back thousands of years and today is among the rarest, most exotic full-size horse breeds around the world.
The irony of Defying Gravity coming up on my phone as I look at a group young Turkmen college aged women and ponder their totally controlled unfree lives.
I went to this American Center in Ashgabat, that the Embassy must run. It’s a library and a place with full internet. I guess it builds good American feelings. Anyhow when I walked in they were doing a program for a room of mostly high school kids with the finance guy from the US Embassy. They invited me to join and sitting their listing to America the Beautiful and reading the inspiring words on the walls made me suddenly burst into tears. The Turkmen people there look to America as an alternative to their authoritarian country, and I just felt so sad that I’m not sure we really stand for that stuff right now.
A guy closer to my age wanted to talk with me after. He was so down on his fellow countryman for not caring and just wanted to talk news with people. It was pretty interesting and moving. I felt bad having nothing good to say about the US these days.
The UNESCO World Heritage site, the Fortresses of Nisa, are one of the earliest and most important cities of the Parthian Empire, a major power from the mid 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD. The site is mostly unexcavated with enough excavated to start to imagine what had been there as our guide told us history and showed us pictures of what archeologists think it looked like. Situated at the crossroads of important commercial and strategic axes, this powerful empire formed a barrier to Roman expansion while serving as an important communication and trading centre between east and west, north and south.
Nisa is not just an archaeological site but a symbol of Turkmenistan's rich historical heritage, with connections to ancient trade routes and empires. It’s located just a few kilometers from Ashgabat.
I often am not that into antiquities, but this one wowed me. I think it was the way they had little pieces of historic details in the ruins for a chance to see today and yesteryear and be transported The guide also had a notebook of renderings of the site at what is imagined as its original ornate look, which was so interesting to compare to the pile of bricks and mud before my eyes. Mostly seeing Nisa was another reminder of all the great empires who crossed Turkmenistan.
Located In the Karakum Desert in the center of Turkmenistan, the Gates of Hell crater was created in 1971 when a Soviet drilling rig accidentally punched into a massive underground natural gas cavern, causing the ground to collapse and the entire drilling rig to fall in. Having punctured a pocket of gas, poisonous fumes began leaking at an alarming rate.
To head off a potential environmental catastrophe, the Soviets set the hole alight, figuring it would stop burning within a few weeks. Decades later, and the fiery pit is still going strong.
The fate of the burning crater may be in limbo. In January 2022, the President ordered the government of Turkmenistan to begin researching how to put the fire out. So far it’s still burning, so I got there in time and was able to enjoy the best bonfire I’ve even seen that radiated wonderful cozy warmth on the cold desert night. Too bad I forgot marshmallows and an incredible long roasting stick!
Our first stop in Turkmenistan was Kunya-Urgench a historical area that is now a religious pilgrimage site The area attracted many locals who found us Western travelers to be quite a fascination. Everyone seemed to want pictures with us, but many were afraid to ask so they would just stand nearby and look curious until I asked for pictures and they eagerly agreed and took their own too.
In the end of the 10th century this area was the capital of the huge and prospering Khorezm state which occupied the entire area of the Amu Darya river delta in northern Turkmenistan and western Uzbekistan, including Khiva where I had just come from.
It stood at a good geographical location - the crossing of two major caravan routes: to the east, to China, and from the south - to the northwest, to the Volga. It quickly expanded, turning in to a true center of civilization. In the beginning of the 11th century Kunya - Urgench became so well-known that eclipsed the glory of Bukhara. Scientists and poets, who glorified the city as "the capital of thousand wise men", flocked there.
During entire 13th century Kunya - Urgench had been a heart of "the Islamic World" until its governor rebelled against Genghis Khan. Mongols completely destroyed the famous city, razed it to the ground. That is why contemporary Kunya - Urgench is considerably wrecked. Many historical buildings of Kunya-Urgench have remained from the times of Khoresm dynasty. They can serve as examples of the variety of Islamic architecture of Central Asia since the ruins represent types of construction designs and rare dome shapes.
It was interesting to visit this area in contrast to the Uzbekistan sites we went to, because Turkmenistan believes in leaving these historic buildings in as they found them vs renovating them back to their original grandeur. Somehow that stirred me and made me think more broadly about preservation.
We spent our first night in Dasoguz and began to see how Turkmenistan was going to be a very unusual place to visit. I had read about how the country’s leaders had been replacing Soviet buildings with big dramatic white fine Italian marble buildings for years, but I didn’t fully get how strange this would be to see in person. This small city is the center of the agricultural sector in the area. It had large almost empty boulevards and giant showy buildings that really don’t seem to fit into the desert scene around them. Many have been built for government ceremonies and are only used once or twice a year and otherwise are empty. At night most of the buildings were lit with colorful light displays. Click thru to see the huge marble hotel we stayed in with only a handful of other guests. Check out our hostage photo showing we were ok, or were we? Every newspaper in the lobby has the same two pictures of Serdar Berdimuhamedow, the county’s newish 3rd President, on it. A sure sign of a strange type of authoritarian rule, if I’ve ever seen one.
This is as good a place as any to mention again that Turkmenistan sits on the one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world. Due to that the leaders have had lots of money to build their marble vision.
I’ve heard over and over again in recent times that the next world wars will be fought over access to water. In Central Asia’s five landlocked nations there is not enough water. All the nations are fighting over limited resources. In northwestern Turkmenistan, as we crossed the border, I saw this more starkly than I ever have seen it before. What you see might look like a light snow on the ground, but instead it is salt left over from watering crops with highly salinated water.
The issue was only made more stark when the Soviet Union chose this area to grow cotton and it sucked up what water was available. Now as the earth gets hotter there is need for more water and the water available is not healthy or very usable and that land is mostly unproductive and unfarmable.
Our first stop in Turkmenistan was Kunya-Urgench a historical area that is now a religious pilgrimage site The area attracted many locals who found us Western travelers to be quite a fascination. Everyone seemed to want pictures with us, but many were afraid to ask so they would just stand nearby and look curious until I asked for pictures and they eagerly agreed and took their own too.
In the end of the 10th century this area was the capital of the huge and prospering Khorezm state which occupied the entire area of the Amu Darya river delta in northern Turkmenistan and western Uzbekistan, including Khiva where I had just come from.
It stood at a good geographical location - the crossing of two major caravan routes: to the east, to China, and from the south - to the northwest, to the Volga. It quickly expanded, turning in to a true center of civilization. In the beginning of the 11th century Kunya - Urgench became so well-known that eclipsed the glory of Bukhara. Scientists and poets, who glorified the city as "the capital of thousand wise men", flocked there.
During entire 13th century Kunya - Urgench had been a heart of "the Islamic World" until its governor rebelled against Genghis Khan. Mongols completely destroyed the famous city, razed it to the ground. That is why contemporary Kunya - Urgench is considerably wrecked. Many historical buildings of Kunya-Urgench have remained from the times of Khoresm dynasty. They can serve as examples of the variety of Islamic architecture of Central Asia since the ruins represent types of construction designs and rare dome shapes.
It was interesting to visit this area in contrast to the Uzbekistan sites we went to, because Turkmenistan believes in leaving these historic buildings in as they found them vs renovating them back to their original grandeur. Somehow that stirred me and made me think more broadly about preservation.
Traveling into Turkmenistan, one of the least visited countries in the world, meant standing in line at the land border crossing with my heart beating extra fast in fear of the unknown. It took a couple hours, but all went smoothly and we were greeted by friendly smiles on the other side. Unfortunately I only have this one under the radar photo for my memories, because the people watching along the way was pretty great.
I've always wanted to travel the Silk Road and see the beautiful tiles in Uzbekistan for many years and even with all the expectation this trip was better than I could have hoped for. I'll always remember the wide smiles of the locals, the incredible architecture, the tastes that showed the way the constant flow of people and things on those trading routes wove together many different cultures in a lasting way, and the way thousands of years of history through many empires started to become real and not just something I read about in a book. Also, my year of Russian classes finally had some use even if I can only remember about 6 words.
Thanks for joining me on this journey.
Click HERE to see the rest of my Uzbekistan pictures
Next stop, Khiva. An 8 hour drive from Bukhara lies another little city with its own flavor, including being the part of the country with the prettiest women. (Which I learned from my beautiful female guide who was from there , but was told the same thing in Turkmenistan too and definitely noticed the women had a distinct look.)
Khiva’s Itchan Kala, the walled city, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the best preserved and most impressive destinations on the Silk Road. Well-preserved streets, mosques made of baked mud bricks and majestic fortress walls evoke the spirit of the caravans of traders (and conquerors), which once passed through in great numbers.
Founded some 2,500 years ago, this open-air museum is a labyrinth of streets lined with dozens of intricately decorated monuments, most of which date from the 14th to the 19th centuries.
One highlight was visiting a three generation family of tightrope walkers who put on a show for us. But again, the biggest highlights were the ornate tiles throughout the old city.
