Ýolöten (russian: Ёлoтен, tk, یوْلؤتن Ёлөтен) is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

and capital of

Ýolöten District Ýolöten District is a district of Mary Province in Turkmenistan. The administrative center of the district is the town of Ýolöten. History Formed in January 1926 as Iolotan Raion, its location is in Merv District of the Turkmen Soviet Soc ...

Mary Province Mary Region ( tk, Mary welaýaty, Мары велаяты) is one of five provinces in Turkmenistan. It is located in the south-east of the country, bordering Afghanistan. Its capital is the city of Mary. Its area is and population 1,480,400 ( ...

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 ...

. The city is located in the delta of the

Murghab River The Marghab River ( Persian/Pashto: مرغاب, ''Morqâb''), anciently the Margiana (Ancient Greek: Μαργιανή, ''Margianḗ''), is an long river in Central Asia. It rises in the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Safīd Kūh'') in Ghor ...

, 55 kilometers southeast of

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

. It was granted the status of a city in 1939.

Etymology

Atanyyazow attributes the name to the settlement's location on the Silk Road between ancient

Merv Merv ( tk, Merw, ', مرو; fa, مرو, ''Marv''), also known as the Merve Oasis, formerly known as Alexandria ( grc-gre, Ἀλεξάνδρεια), Antiochia in Margiana ( grc-gre, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐν τῇ Μαργιανῇ) and ...

and

Herat Herāt (; Persian: ) is an oasis city and the third-largest city of Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Safē ...

. The words ''ýol'' and ''öten'' mean "road" and "past" in Turkmen, respectively, i.e., "a place to cross".

Transportation

Ýolöten lies on the Mary-

Serhetabat Serhetabat (formerly Gushgy) ( tk, Guşgy; russian: Кушка, Kushka) is a city in Tagtabazar District, Mary Province, Turkmenistan. Serhetabat lies in the valley of the Kushka River. The population was 5,200 in 1991. It is immediately opposit ...

railway line, and at the junction of the A-388 highway connecting Mary and Serhetabat and the P-25 highway connecting Ýolöten to Baýramaly.

Population

In 1989 the town had a population of 18,644, with a total of some 35,000 in the town and surrounding district.Harry's World Atlas
/ref> The 2009 estimate is 37,705.

Economy

Ýolöten is the nearest city to the

Galkynysh Gas Field The Galkynysh Gas Field, formerly known as Iolotan gas field or South Yolotan – Osman field, is a large natural gas field near Ýolöten in Mary Province of Turkmenistan. It is the world's second-largest gas field. History The discovery of t ...

, formerly known as the Iolotan or South Yolotan–Osman field, the second-largest gas field in the world, and support of natural gas operations is a major part of the city's economy. It is also a center for agricultural product processing, due to its location in the Murghab River oasis.

References

External links

Seydi Oil RefineryFlickr imagesThe Yoloten letter feature
{{Cities of Turkmenistan Populated places in Mary Region