Kaka, also known as Kaakhka, Kaakcha or Chaacha, is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

in and capital of

Kaka District Kaka District is a district of Ahal Province, Turkmenistan. In ancient times the area was a fertile agricultural plain to the north of the Kopet Dag mountain range. A number of important Bronze Age sites exist in the area, such as Ulug Depe and Ab ...

Ahal Province Ahal Region (; from , also ) is one of five provinces of Turkmenistan. It is in the south-center of the country, bordering Iran and Afghanistan along the Kopet Dag Range. Its area is and population 886,845 (2022 census).''Statistical Yearbook ...

, Turkmenistan. It lies on the

Trans-Caspian railway The Trans-Caspian Railway (also called the Central Asian Railway, ) is a railway that follows the path of the Silk Road through much of western Central Asia. It was built by the Russian Empire during its expansion into Central Asia in the 19t ...

and the M37 highway.

Etymology

The name Kaka is of obscure origin. Some local elders have attributed it to an eponymous "long-forgotten" local king, while others to the Persian

onomatopoeic Onomatopoeia (or rarely echoism) is a type of word, or the process of creating a word, that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Common onomatopoeias in English include animal noises such as ''oink'', '' ...

word قهقهه (Qahqahe) "ha-ha", a deep laugh, indicating that the area is a happy land. The current spelling of the name, Kaka, was established by parliamentary decree in April 1992.

History

Timur Timur, also known as Tamerlane (1320s17/18 February 1405), was a Turco-Mongol conqueror who founded the Timurid Empire in and around modern-day Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia, becoming the first ruler of the Timurid dynasty. An undefeat ...

had a fortress—of unknown antiquity—restored in 1382 during his campaigns in East Caspian lands, and named it "Kahkah". The ruins of the fortress command immense archaeological significance.

Overview

Fighting took place in Kaka between the Trans Caspian

Mensheviks The Mensheviks ('the Minority') were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903. Mensheviks held more moderate and reformist ...

and the Tashkent

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

on 28 August and on 11 and 18 September 1918 during the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

. Troops of the

British India Army The Indian Army was the force of British India, until national independence in 1947. Formed in 1895 by uniting the three Presidency armies, it was responsible for the defence of both British India and the princely states, which could also have ...

were involved.Operations in Trans-Caspia
, Behind the Lines, accessed 23 September 2009

Transport

There is a Tsarist era railway station.

References

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