Ýolöten (, ) 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 ...
and capital of
Ýolöten District,
Mary Province
Mary Region () is one of five regions of Turkmenistan, provinces in Turkmenistan. It is located in the south-east of the country, bordering Afghanistan. Its capital is the city of Mary, Turkmenistan, Mary. Its area is and population 1,613,386 (2 ...
,
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...
. The city is located in the delta of the
Murghab River, 55 kilometers southeast of
Mary. It was granted the status of a city in 1939.
Etymology
Atanyyazow attributes the name to the settlement's location on the
Silk Road
The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...
between ancient
Merv
Merv (, ', ; ), also known as the Merve Oasis, was a major Iranian peoples, Iranian city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, near today's Mary, Turkmenistan. Human settlements on the site of Merv existed from the 3rd millennium& ...
and
Herat
Herāt (; Dari/Pashto: هرات) is an oasis city and the third-largest city in 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 (''Se ...
. 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) (; , Kushka) is a city in Tagtabazar District, Mary Province, southernTurkmenistan. Serhetabat lies in the valley of the Kushk River. The population was 5,200 in 1991. It is immediately opposite Torghundi, Afghani ...
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 city had a population of 18,644, with a total of some 35,000 in the city plus the surrounding district. The 2009 estimate is 37,705.
Economy
Ýolöten is the nearest city to the
Galkynysh Gas Field, 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.
Notable people
*
Ramis Bahshaliyev (born 1971), World Powerlifting Champion
References
External links
Seydi Oil RefineryFlickr imagesThe Yoloten letter feature
{{Cities of Turkmenistan
Populated places in Mary Region