Gumdag (romanized Russian Kum Dag) is a town in Balkan Province,

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...

. It is located 43 km southeast of the city of Balkanabat. To the south-east of the town, lies the Boyadag Mud Volcano.

Etymology

The name is derived from two words in Turkmen, ''gum'' ("sand") and ''dag'' ("mountain, hill"). Atanyyazow postulates that the name came from the sand hill 3 km to the west where the first oil well in the area was drilled.

Economy

The town is home to the Gumdag oil and gas field, which is the main driver of the local economy.

History

Before Gumdag was established, the settlement was called Hudaý-Dag, Bahangoşa and Monjuklu. Gumdag was founded as a village in the 1930s by nomadic families from nearby settlements. In the same years, a well-drilling machine was installed by the government on the sand hill 3 km west of the village. With the development of oil production from the region, people from Balkanabat and other cities started to flock here. From 1951 to 1956, it was attached to the

Ashgabat Ashgabat or Asgabat ( tk, Aşgabat, ; fa, عشق‌آباد, translit='Ešqābād, formerly named Poltoratsk ( rus, Полтора́цк, p=pəltɐˈratsk) between 1919 and 1927), is the capital and the largest city of Turkmenistan. It lies ...

region. It used to be a city-with-district-status until November 2022.

Population

References

Populated places in Balkan Region {{Turkmenistan-geo-stub