Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

Ashgabat (Turkmen: ''Aşgabat'') is the capital and largest city of Turkmenistan. It lies between the Karakum Desert and the Kopetdag mountain range in Central Asia, approximately 50 km (30 mi) away from the Iran-Turkmenistan border. The city has a population of 1,030,063 (2022 census).

The city was founded in 1881 on the basis of an Ahal Teke tribal village, and made the capital of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic in 1924 when it was known as Poltoratsk. Much of the city was destroyed by the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake, but has since been extensively rebuilt under the rule of Saparmurat Niyazov's "White City" urban renewal project, resulting in monumental projects sheathed in costly white marble. The Soviet-era Karakum Canal runs through the city, carrying waters from the Amu Darya from east to west.

Today, as the capital of an independent Turkmenistan, Ashgabat retains a multiethnic population, with ethnic Turkmen as the majority. In 2021, it celebrated 140 years of its written history.

Etymology

Ashgabat is called ''Aşgabat'' in Turkmen, () in Russian from 1925 to 1991, and () in Persian. Before 1991, the name was usually spelled Ashkhabad in English, a transliteration of the Russian form. It has also been variously spelled Ashkhabat and Ashgabad. From 1919 until 1927, the city was renamed Poltoratsk after a local revolutionary, Pavel Poltoratskiy.

Although the name literally means "city of love" or "city of devotion" in modern Persian, the name might be modified through folk etymology. Turkmen historian Ovez Gundogdiyev believes that the name goes back to the Parthian era, 3rd century BC, deriving from the name of the founder of the Parthian Empire, Arsaces I of Parthia, in Persian Ashk-Abad (the city of ''Ashk''/Arsaces).

Geography

Ashgabat is in near proximity, approximately 50 km (30 mi), to the Iranian border. It occupies a highly seismically active oasis plain bounded on the south by the foothills of the Kopet Dag mountains () and on the north by the Karakum Desert. It is surrounded by, but not part of, Ahal Province (). The highest point in the city is the high sandhill upon which the Yyldyz Hotel was built, but most of the city lies between of elevation. The Karakum Canal runs through the city.

Like the rest of Turkmenistan, Ashgabat's soil is primarily sediment that accumulated on the bottom of the Paratethys Ocean. The Kopet Dag mountains emerged toward the end of the Cretaceous Period.

Urban layout

1881 to 1929

Prior to 1881 any buildings other than yurts were made solely from adobe and were limited to one story in height due to the seismic risk. As of 1900 only one building in the city was two stories tall, the municipal museum. City planning began following the Russian conquest, with "very simple planning schemes". The basic layout of downtown streets "has been preserved to this day and defined the unique character of the city structure combining linear and radial types of layout of blocks". The Russian writer Vasily Yan, who lived in Askhabad from 1901 to 1904, described the city as "a little tidy town consisting of numerous clay houses, surrounded by fruit gardens with straight streets, planted with slim cottonwood, chestnut, and white acacia planned by the hand of military engineers". Another description noted,
: The fortress was the center of the bureaucratic part of the city. Here stood especially sturdy thick-walled houses, with strong window grates and corner buttresses. Earthquakes were less frightening in such houses, and behind the thick walls even in the hottest months some measure of indoor coolness was retained. Each house had a garden around it, on maintenance of which residents spared neither expenditures nor water...Nearer the rail station lived the railroad workers and craftsmen. Here the houses were shorter and more densely spaced, gardens smaller, and dust on the streets greater...
: Gradually a third center of Ashkhabad started to emerge, of the merchants. Roughly equidistant from the rail station and the fortress was laid out a sad marketplace, becoming not only a center of stores and stalls, but a center of gravity for merchants' residence.

1930 to 1948

In 1930, asphalt was used for the first time to pave Ashgabat's streets. The water supply was increased by piping water from springs in neighboring Gämi and Bagyr.

The first master plan for Ashgabat, developed between 1935 and 1937 at the Moscow Institute of Geodesy, Aerial Imagery, and Cartography, envisioned expansion to the west, including irrigation and greening of the Bikrova canyon (today Bekrewe). The city architect's office was created in 1936 but was unable to implement the new master plan "as it implied significant demolition of the existing buildings". A description of Ashgabat published in 1948 just before the earthquake noted, "In Ashgabat there are nearly no tall buildings, thus every two-story building is visible from above...", i.e., from the foothills. The tallest structures were the clock tower of the textile mill, the "round smokestack of the glass factory", two "exceptionally thin minarets" of the "former mosque", and "two splendid towers over the long building of the main city hotel".

Impact of the 1948 earthquake

During the 1948 earthquake, since the bulk of Ashgabat at that time was built of either adobe or fired brick, all but a very few buildings collapsed or were damaged beyond repair (the reinforced concrete grain elevator, Church of St. Alexander Nevsky, and Kärz Bank were among the structures that survived). According to Turkmenistan's official news agency,
: Nearly all one-story residential buildings in the city made of mud brick were destroyed, 95 percent of all one-story buildings made of fired brick, and the remaining structures were damaged beyond repair. The number of inhabitable buildings was in single digits, and at that, only after capital renovation.

A new general plan was hastily developed by July 1949. The city was divided into four zones: central, northern, eastern, and southwestern. Reconstruction of the city began in that year. Thus from the early 1950s through 1991 Ashgabat's skyline was dominated by the Brutalist Style favored by post-Stalin Soviet architects. The city's central avenue, Magtymguly (former Kuropatkin, Freedom, and Stalin Avenue), featured "monotonous and primarily two-story construction of administrative and residential buildings". This reconstruction "preserved the existing network of city streets as it was economically unjustified to redesign them". The city was described as "...a Communist-era backwater, rebuilt into a typically drab provincial Soviet city..." The plan was updated in 1959. (online edition)

Among the buildings erected in the 1950s and 1960s were the headquarters of the Central Committee of the Turkmenistan Communist Party, the Council of Ministers Building, the Mollanepes Academic Drama Theater, the former Ashkhabad Hotel (now renamed Paytagt), the Academy of Sciences complex, and the downtown library building. On then-Karl Marx Square stood a monument to the Soviet "fighters for victory of Soviet power in Turkmenistan".

The 1960s master plan

The Turkmen State Project Institute undertook a feasibility study in the mid-1960s to forecast Ashgabat's development to the year 2000, and on that basis to develop a new master plan. Up until then the city had largely expanded to the east, but now the plan called for development to the south and west. This plan was used for about 20 years, and led to construction of the city's first four-story apartment buildings in the Howdan () microdistricts, formerly the site of the Ashgabat-South aerodrome, as well as annexation of three collective farms in the near suburbs and their conversion into residential neighborhoods, one of which, Leningrad kolkhoz, to this day is referred to informally by its former name. The plan was reworked in 1974, and this resulted in relocation of several industrial plants away from the city center, and thus creation of the industrial zones to the northwest, south, southeast, and northeast.

Between 1961 and 1987 the city architect was Abdulla Ahmedov, who introduced Soviet modernism to Ashgabat. Ahmedov's greatest architectural accomplishment during this period is considered the Ashgabat Hotel (today renamed Paytagt Hotel), built between 1964 and 1970, "a harmonious synthesis of architecture and monumental art".

Growth

In 1948 Ashgabat was described before the earthquake as lying "on a sloping plain of the Kopet-Dag foothills, stretching seven kilometers from west to east and five kilometers from the railroad right-of-way to the south, in the direction of the mountains". Through the mid-1970s, Ashgabat was a compact city, as shown by the 1974 Soviet military's General Staff map J-40-081. The village of Köşi, collective farm "Leningrad", airport, and suburbs to the north were outside the city limits.

Beginning in the 1970s, Ashgabat's boundaries shifted outward, with the aforementioned municipalities annexed, the aerodrome at Howdan redeveloped, and creation of the Parahat () neighborhoods to the south and industrial parks to the east. In 2013, Ashgabat annexed a portion of the then-Ruhabat district of Ahal Province as well as the city of Abadan (previously named Büzmeýin, and renamed that as a neighborhood) plus all land and villages in between. The southern boundary of Ashgabat was extended southward to the foothills of the Kopet Dag mountains. Overall, Ashgabat's land area rose by 37,654 hectares. The following municipalities were abolished due to their incorporation into the city of Ashgabat: city of Abadan, towns of Jülge and Ruhabat, villages of Gökje, Gypjak, Birleşik, Magaryf, Herrikgala, Ýalkym, Gurtly, Hellewler, Ylmy-Tejribe bazasy, Ýasmansalyk, Köne Gurtly, Gulantäzekli, Serdar ýoly, Gaňtar, Gyzyljagala, Inerçýage, Tarhan, Topurly, and Ussagulla. A further expansion occurred January 5, 2018, when additional land to the north was annexed, incorporating the Gurtly Reservoir and two greenfield residential construction projects, known today as Täze Zaman. This statute also established the current four boroughs of Ashgabat.

Climate

The Kopet Dag mountain range is about to the south, and Ashgabat's northern boundary touches the Kara-Kum desert. Because of this Ashgabat has a cold desert climate (Köppen climate classification: ''BWk'', bordering on ''BWh'') with mediterranean influences. It features very hot, dry summers and cool, short, somewhat moist, winters. The average high temperature in July is . Nighttimes in the summer are warm, with an average minimum temperature in July of . The average January high temperature is , and the average low temperature is . The highest temperature ever recorded in Ashgabat is , recorded in June 2015. A low temperature of was recorded in January 1969. Snow is infrequent in the area. Annual precipitation is only ; March and April are the wettest months, and June to September are the driest months. In May 2022, , 1,352% of the monthly normal, was reported.

History

Ashgabat grew on the ruins of the Silk Road city of Konjikala, first mentioned as a wine-producing village in the 1st-2nd century BC and leveled by an earthquake in the 1st century BC. Konjikala was rebuilt because of its advantageous location on the Silk Road and it flourished until its destruction by Mongols in the 13th century. After that it survived as a small village until Russians took over in the 19th century.

The near suburb of Köşi, until 2013 a separate village but in that year annexed by Ashgabat, may have been site of a Parthian fortress constructed to protect the capital city, Nisa, based on discoveries of pottery and other artifacts in the 1970s and as recently as 2020. Other artifacts indicating settlement during the Parthian period were reportedly discovered during laying of telephone cables on the site of the Gülistan (Russian) Bazaar in downtown Ashgabat.

According to Muradov, the first mention of the settlement in modern times is found in Khiva chronicles of 1811.

British Lieutenant Colonel H.C. Stuart reported in 1881 that the Ahal branch of the Teke tribe of the Turkmen ethnic group arrived in the area around 1830 and established several semi-nomadic villages (''auls'') between what are now the city of Gyzylarbat and village of Gäwers, inclusive. One of these villages was named Askhabad., Chapter 11, Stuart, Lt. Col. H.C., ''The Country of the Tekke Turkomans, and the Tejend and Murghab Rivers'', lecture delivered in 1881. The first Russian reference to Ashgabat dates to 1850, in a document kept in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs archives listing 43 Ahal fortresses, "Ishkhabad" among them. It was described as a "typical Turkmen ''aul''".

It was formally part of Persia but ''de facto'' autonomous under Turkoman tribal control until Russian forces defeated the Teke army at the Battle of Geok Tepe in January 1881. Persia ceded Askhabad to the Russian Empire in September 1881 under the terms of the Akhal Treaty.

Russian Empire

The city was officially founded January 18, 1881, as a fortified garrison and was named after the Turkmen village on that site.Pospelov, pp. 29–30 Russian military engineers platted the garrison settlement "on the western edge of the ''aul'' (village) of Askhabad on the Gaudan (Howdan) road leading to Persia. The fortress stood on a hill 12 meters high, on which was constructed a citadel-redoubt, and below t the residential area, surrounded by walls and a moat." Sixty-seven Turkmen families were compensated for the land confiscated from them for this construction.

Russia developed the area due to its proximity to the border of British-influenced Persia. In 1882 a wagon road was built through the mountains to Quchan, Iran, which led to increased trade as well as settlement of Persian and Armenian merchants in Askhabad. The Trans-Caspian railway reached Askhabad in 1885. The population grew from 2,500 in 1881 to 10,000 in 1886 and 19,428 (of whom one third were Persian) by 1897. The Transcaspian Public Library was established in 1885, boys and girls high schools were founded in 1886, and the Kuropatkin School of Horticulture and Viticulture appeared in 1890. The first telephone station was installed in 1900.

The city was regarded as a pleasant municipality with European-style buildings, shops, and hotels. Several streets were named after Russian military figures, reflecting its status as a garrison town, including the main square, named in honor of General Mikhail Skobelev, commander of Russian forces during the 1880–1881 Trans-Caspian military campaign. These included as well the western boundary avenue, named in honor of General Nikolai Grodekov, and the city's central avenue, renamed in the 1890s to honor General and Trans-Caspian Governor-General Aleksey Kuropatkin, both of whom had served in the Trans-Caspian campaign under Skobolev's command.

In 1908, the first Bahá'í House of Worship was built in Askhabad. It was badly damaged in the 1948 earthquake and finally demolished in 1963. The community of the Bahá'í Faith in Turkmenistan was largely based in Askhabad.

By 1915 Askhabad featured branches of the Russian State Bank, Persian Accounting Loan Bank, Russian-Asian Bank, Société Générale, and Askhabat Mutual Credit Union.

Soviet period

Soviet rule was established in Ashgabat in December 1917. However, in July 1918, a coalition of Mensheviks, Social Revolutionaries, and Tsarist former officers of the Imperial Russian Army revolted against the Bolshevik rule emanating from Tashkent and established the Ashkhabad Executive Committee. After receiving some support (but even more promises) from General Malleson, the British withdrew in April 1919 and the Tashkent Soviet resumed control of the city.

In 1919, the city was renamed Poltoratsk (), after Pavel Poltoratskiy, the Chairman of the Soviet of National Economy of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. When the Turkmen SSR was established in 1924, Poltoratsk became its capital. The original name but in the form of "Ashkhabad" rather than "Askhabad" was restored in 1927. In keeping with standard Soviet practice, Imperial Russian street names were changed to honor prominent Communists, Russians, or socialist ideals. For example, Skobolev Square became Karl Marx Square, Grodekov Street became Ostrovskiy Street, and Kuropatkin Avenue became Freedom Avenue (and from 1953 to 1961, following Joseph Stalin's death, Stalin Avenue). In 1927 a statue of Vladimir Lenin designed by A.A. Karelin and Ye.R. Tripolskaya was erected.

During World War II Ashgabat became a refuge for both institutions, including Moscow State University and the Kiev film studio, and individuals. Roughly 8,000 refugees were quartered in private homes during the war. Among the outsiders who escaped to Ashgabat during the war were Andrei Sakharov and author Yury Olesha. In 1944 Ukrainian motion picture director Mark Donskoy filmed ''Rainbow'' (, ) in Ashgabat, which was nominated for an Academy Award as best foreign film.

From this period onward, the city experienced rapid growth and industrialisation, although severely disrupted by a major earthquake on October 6, 1948. An estimated 7.3 on the Surface magnitude scale, the earthquake killed 110–176,000 (two-thirds of the population of the city), although the official number announced by Soviet news was only 40,000. The earthquake was recorded as one of the deadliest natural disasters in Soviet history.

Independence

In July 2003, street names in Ashgabat were replaced by serial numbers except for nine major highways, some named after Saparmurat Niyazov, his father, and his mother. The Presidential Palace Square was designated 2000 to symbolize the beginning of the 21st century. The rest of the streets were assigned larger or smaller four-digit numerical names. Following Niyazov's death in 2006, Soviet-era street names were restored, though in the years since, many of them have been replaced with names honoring Turkmen scholars, poets, military heroes, and figures from art and culture, as well as celebrating the nation's independence. For example, Karl Marx Square became Garaşsyzlyk (Independence) Square, Ostrovskiy Street became Abba Annaýew (in honor of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov's great-uncle), and Freedom Avenue became Magtymguly.

In 2013, the city was included in the ''Guinness Book of Records'' as possessing the world's highest concentration of white marble buildings.

Ashgabat's "11th Line" project was dedicated on June 29, 2012, including 17 high-rise apartment buildings along 10 ýyl Abadançylyk şaýoly, two secondary schools, two kindergartens, a fire station, and a health clinic. The "12th Line" project was completed October 1, 2014, consisting of a straightening and widening of Atamyrat Nyýazow şaýoly plus construction of 13 high-rise apartment buildings, two secondary schools, two kindergartens, a new headquarters building for the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the Telekeçi shopping center, and the Development Bank. On that same date, the new Cabinet of Ministers building was also opened.

In preparation for the 2017 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, the city spent $5 billion on residential construction. December 4, 2014, the president issued a decree calling for construction of 60 9-story apartment buildings in the Parahat-7 microdistrict, a greenfield project in the southeast quadrant of the city. On November 10, 2015, the "13th Line" was dedicated, a complete reconstruction of buildings along Oguzhan köçesi west of Garaşsyzlyk şaýoly. Projects included demolition and redevelopment of the Leningrad kolkhoz neighborhood as the "14th Line", and the Gazha and Vosmushka neighborhoods as the "15th Line".

Subsequent to conclusion of the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, the "16th Line" project, a redevelopment of the Köşi neighborhood and extension of Magtymguly Avenue to the west, was begun in 2018. The "16th Line" was dedicated on November 10, 2020; it includes 16 high-rise apartment buildings, the Gül zemin shopping center, and a monument to the Alabay sheepdog. In addition, the Gurtly and Choganly housing complexes, both greenfield projects, were constructed. In May 2021 the government announced plans for the "17th Line", consisting of a resort complex encircling Golden Lake (), the former Gurtly Reservoir, to include 268 vacation cottages plus buildings for public services and amenities.

On 23 August 2022 the government announced plans to demolish one- and two-story houses in several microdistricts of central Ashgabat and to replace them with modern apartment buildings. A map of the areas intended for urban renewal was broadcast on national television that day, but no indication of a timeline was given.

The largest current residential project is construction of "Ashgabat-City" ''()'' north of the Choganly residential neighborhood, which is planned to include over 200 buildings on 744 hectares, and for the first time in the city's history to feature some buildings as tall as 35 stories. These will include 180 12- to 35-story residential buildings containing 17,836 apartments intended to house over 107,000 occupants.

Ashgabat milestones:
* 1882–1918 – administrative center of Russia's Transcaspian Region
* 1918–1925 – administrative center of the Turkmen Oblast in the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
* since February 1925 – capital of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic
* since October 1991 – capital of independent Turkmenistan

Districts

Boroughs

As of January 5, 2018, Ashgabat includes four boroughs (''uly etraplar''), each with a presidentially appointed mayor ():

# Bagtyýarlyk etraby (formerly President Niyazov, Lenin District, expanded to include former Ruhabat District plus new territory)
# Berkararlyk etraby (formerly Azatlyk, Sovetskiy District)
# Büzmeýin etraby (formerly Abadan District, expanded to include former Arçabil and Çandybil Districts)
# Köpetdag etraby (formerly Proletarskiy District)

This is a reduction from the previous number of boroughs. Arçabil and Çandybil boroughs were merged on February 4, 2015, and the new ''etrap'', named Arçabil, was in turn renamed Büzmeýin in January 2018. At that time the Abadan borough of Ashgabat, created in 2013 by annexing the town of Abadan and surrounding villages to Abadan's south, was abolished and its territory was merged into the newly renamed Büzmeýin borough. The former Ruhabat borough was abolished at the same time and its territory absorbed by Bagtyýarlyk borough.

On 15 June 2020, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov announced intention to create a fifth borough of Ashgabat, to be called Altyn etraby, centered on the new resort zone created on the shores of the former Gurtly Water Reservoir, recently renamed "Golden Lake" (Altyn köl).

Microdistricts

Ashgabat's boroughs are subdivided into microdistricts (, ). These are administrative units that possess no independent governance structures. They are used for management of utilities and publicly owned housing. Ashgabat includes the following microdistricts:

* 1 through 11 Etrapça
* 30 Etrapça
* Howdan A
* Howdan B
* Howdan W
* Parahat 1 through 8

Demographics

In 1871, a Russian visitor named Strebnitskiy counted over four thousand "nomad tents" (yurts), implying a population of 16 to 20 thousand Ahal Teke Turkmen, many of whom were killed or dispersed in the 1881 Battle of Geok Tepe. The population was 2,500 in 1881, virtually all Russian. By 1886, Askhabad's population was about 10,000, mainly ethnic Russians. Construction of the Trans-Caspian Railway stimulated an influx of migrants seeking employment, particularly from the Caucasus, Volga Valley, and Iran, and Askhabad's subsequent population growth was as follows:

* 1897: 19,426
* 1908: 39,867
* 1911: 45,384

Ethnic Russians dominated the population after 1881, with about 20 percent admixture of Caucasus-origin migrants (mainly Armenian). One source indicates that pre-revolutionary Askhabad had no Turkmen residents at all, and that they lived in nearby ''auls''. This began to change in the 1920s, following imposition of Soviet power, which brought with it forced collectivization. In 1926 Ashkhabad's population of 51,593 included 52.4% Russians, 13.53% Armenian, 4.3% Persians, and 29.8% "other". By 1939, Ashkhabad counted 126,500 residents, including 11.7% Armenian. The 1959 census recorded a population of 169,900, which grew to 338,000 by 1983, including 105 nationalities, of which ethnic Armenians constituted 40 percent.

According to estimates of the 2012 Turkmen census, the Turkmens form 78.5% of the city's population. Russians form 10% of the population, followed by Turks (1.1%), Uzbeks (1.1%), and Azeris (1%).

2022 census

Architecture

Post-1991

Following independence in 1991, President Saparmurat Niyazov began hiring foreign architectural and construction firms, most prominently Bouygues of France and the Turkish firms Polimeks and Gap Inşaat, the latter a subsidiary of Çalık Holding. These firms blended Persian-style domes, which Niyazov favored, with Greco-Roman architectural elements such as pillars.

Following Niyazov's death, domes began to go out of fashion for buildings other than mosques, and public buildings began to take on more modernist characteristics, often with a motif reflecting the structure's intended occupant. For example, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building is topped by a globe of the Earth, inside which is a conference center; the Development Bank building is topped by a giant coin; the Ministry of Health and Medical Industry building is shaped like a stylized caduceus, the dental hospital is shaped like a molar and the international terminal of Ashgabat International Airport is shaped like a falcon. The dominant characteristic of new construction since 1991 has been nearly universal facing with white marble. Another recurring motif is the eight-pointed star of Oguz Han, the largest of which is on the television tower and has entered the Guinness Book of World Records. The official Turkmen government guide book to Ashgabat refers to the star of Oguz Khan as "...the basic dominant of the whole architectural-art decor..."

After independence, the city architect's office ordered construction of many high-rise (generally 12-story) residential buildings. Modern construction techniques allow high-rise development with good seismic safety. Primarily consisting of residential towers, the first floor is typically used as retail space and for building maintenance.

Monuments and statues

Ashgabat features many sculptures honoring Turkmen, Turkic, and other Islamic poets and heroes. Four statues, of Lenin, Alexander Pushkin, Taras Shevchenko, and Magtymguly, date to the Soviet period, as do a statue and a bust of Turkmen composer Nury Halmammedov. Since then, however, much new sculpture has appeared. In Ylham (Inspiration) Park are found numerous busts and statues. Additional statues can be seen in the VDNH Park. A monumental statue of the current president was dedicated in May 2015 near Ashgabat Stadium. One also finds statues of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and Alp Arslan. In addition to the statue of former President Niyazov atop the Neutrality Monument, a gilded statue of him stands before the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and a gilded seated statue of him graces the entry to the Turkmen Agricultural University.

Since independence in 1991, several monuments to features of Turkmenistan's governance have been erected: to neutrality, to the constitution, to the renaissance of Turkmenistan, to independence, as well as a special monument to former President Saparmurat Niyazov's magnum opus, ''Ruhnama''.

The memorial complex in Bekrewe includes a statue of a bull with the Earth balanced on its horns, symbolizing the 1948 earthquake, and a statue of two traditionally dressed Turkmen warriors guarding a widow grieving the death of her husband in World War II. The exterior wall of the museum features bas reliefs depicting events in Turkmenistan's history.

In advance of the V Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games held in September 2017, roughly one billion dollars was spent on widening and upgrading Ashgabat's major thoroughfares. Several traffic circles were created, in which were placed mainly abstract monuments. As of 2020 the most recent addition to these are the Bicycle Monument (), which President Berdimuhamedov dedicated on June 3, 2020, and the Turkmen Alabay monument, dedicated on November 10, 2020.

In May 2024, a monument dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the birth of Turkmen poet and philosopher Magtymguly Pyragy was unveiled in Ashgabat, near Walk of Health at the foot of the Kopetdag mountain range. The 60-meter sculpture of the poet stands on a 20-meter pedestal, to which a majestic staircase with massive granite bowls leads.

In October 2024, a statue of Kazakh poet Abai Qunanbaiuly was unveiled in Lachyn Park in Ashgabat.

Controversies

Much of the urban renewal since 1991 has involved demolition of traditional single-family residential housing, commonly with allegedly forced eviction of residents, and often without compensation to the homeowners. In particular, private homes rebuilt in neighborhoods flattened by the 1948 earthquake, many of which were never formally registered with the government, were subject to confiscation and demolition without compensation, as were former dacha communities like Ruhabat, Berzengi, and Choganly, which in nearly all cases lacked formal ownership documents.

First Baha'i Temple in the world

When Ashgabat was under Russian rule, the number of Bahá'ís in the city rose to over 1,000, and a Bahá'í community was established, with its own schools, medical facilities and cemetery. The community elected one of the first Bahá'í local administrative institutions. In 1908 the Bahá'í community completed the construction of the first Bahá'í House of Worship, sometimes referred to by its Arabic name of ''mašriqu-l-'aḏkār'' (), where people of all religions may worship God without denominational restrictions. The building was designed under the guidance of `Abdu'l-Bahá by Ustad' Ali-Akbar Banna Yazdi who also wrote a history of the Baha'is in Ashgabat.

The House of Worship itself was surrounded by gardens, with four buildings at the four corners of the gardens: a school, a hostel where travelling Bahá'ís were entertained, a small hospital, and a building for groundskeepers.

Under the Soviet policy towards religion, the Bahá'ís, strictly adhering to their principle of obedience to legal government, abandoned these properties in 1928. For the decade from 1938 to 1948, when it was seriously damaged by the earthquake, it was an art gallery. It was demolished in 1963.

Other notable structures

The Arch of Neutrality was dismantled and re-erected in its original form in the south of the capital.

Turkmenistan Tower, the television and radio broadcasting tower, at a height of 211 meters is the tallest structure in the country. It was dedicated on October 17, 2011.

The administrative center of Ashgabat as the national capital is on the Archabil highway, where several ministries and agencies, as well as educational, research, and cultural centers, are found. The former Novofiryuzenskoye shosse (New Firyuza Highway) was rebuilt by Gap Inşaat in 2004.

Economy

The principal industries are cotton textiles and metal working. It is a major stop on the Trans-Caspian railway. A large percentage of the employment in Ashgabat is provided by the state institutions; such as the ministries, undersecretariats, and other administrative bodies of the Turkmenistan government. There are also many foreign citizens working as diplomats or clerks in the embassies of their respective countries. Ashgabat lends its name to the Ashgabat agreement, signed by India, Oman, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, for creating an international transport and transit corridor facilitating transportation of goods between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf.

In 2019 and 2020, Ashgabat was the most expensive city in the world for foreign expatriates in ECA International's Cost of Living Survey. It was also listed as the second most expensive city in the world overall by the 2020 Mercer Cost of Living Survey. Its high cost of living for foreigners has been attributed to severe inflation and rising import costs.

Industry

Between 1881 and 1921, little industry existed in Ashgabat. Muradov relates that in 1915 the city featured "68 enterprises, mainly semi-handicrafts, with a total of 200-300 workers". Another source relates that as of 1911 roughly half the workforce of somewhat more than 400 "workers" was employed at the railroad depot, engaged in locomotive and railcar maintenance and repair, with the rest occupied in cotton ginning, cottonseed oil extraction, flour milling, and leather-, brick-, glass-, and iron production. By 1915 the city boasted as well three printing houses, an electrical power station, three cotton gins, a creamery, a tannery, and 35 brickyards.

In 1921 Soviet authorities built a new glass plant plus a wine and spirits factory. In the years following several more factories were added, including the "Red Metalworker" iron-working plant (1925), the silk spinning plant (1928), a cotton spinning plant and textile plant (1929), candy factory (1930), garment factory (1933), shoe factory (1934), and a meat cannery (1938). As of 1948, Ashgabat boasted "about twenty large factory-plant enterprises, which produce fabrics, glass, footwear, garments, meat products, dredges, agricultural implement parts and much else".

Annexation of the former city of Buzmeyin (), which from 2002 to 2018 was known as Abadan, brought into Ashgabat's city limits its major industrial suburb. Today's Buzmeyin neighborhood features the Buzmeyin State Electrical Power Plant, and factories for production of reinforced concrete, cement, asbestos roofing, pipes, and concrete blocks, as well as a carpet-weaving factory and soft-drink bottling plant.

Today more than 43 large and 128 medium-sized industrial enterprises along with over 1,700 small industrial facilities are located in Ashgabat and its suburbs. The most important are Ashneftemash, Turkmenkabel, and Turkmenbashy Textile Complex.

Electrical power generation

The Abadan State Power Plant (now Büzmeýin State Power Plant), commissioned in 1957, was the first large power plant in Turkmenistan. Two gas turbine plants with a capacity of 123 MW each currently generate electricity in this plant. The Ashgabat State Power Plant, located in the southern part of city, began operating in 2006. It is equipped with gas turbine generators with a total capacity of 254.2 megawatts.

Ashgabat also draws power from the Ahal State Power Plant, located outside the city in Ahal Province. It began operating in 2010 with two gas turbines producing 254.2 MW. Three small gas turbines were added in 2013 and two more gas turbines in 2014, bringing capacity to 648.1 MW.

Shopping

Altyn Asyr Bazaar in Choganly, also known as "Tolkuchka", features manufactured items including traditional fabrics and hand-woven carpets, as well as livestock and used automobiles.

Modern shopping areas are found mostly in central streets, including the modern Berkarar Mall, Arkaç Mall, Ashgabat Shopping and Entertainment Center, Gül Zemin and Paýtagt, as well as the 15 Years of Independence Shopping Centre (), colloquially known as the "Wholesale Market" ().

Local residents tend to shop at traditional bazaars: Gülistan (Russian) Bazaar, Teke Bazaar, Daşoguz Bazaar, Paytagt (Mir) Bazaar, and Jennet Bazaar. The Turkish-owned Yimpaş department store closed as of December 2016.

Transportation

The city is served by the Ashgabat International Airport, expansion of which cost $2.3 billion and which has a design capacity of 14,000,000 passengers per year. Turkmenistan Airlines is headquartered at the airport. Ashgabat offers air service to and from all the major cities of the Turkmenistan. Since March 2020, in order to prevent the import and spread of coronavirus infection, all planes arriving in Turkmenistan from abroad are redirected to the Turkmenabat International Airport.

On 18 October 2006, the Ashgabat Cable Car opened, connecting the city with the foothills of the Kopetdag.

Ashgabat Monorail commenced service in 2016, becoming the first monorail in the Central Asia region. It is a loop 5.2 kilometers long and circulates exclusively on the territory of the Olympic Village ().

In January 2018, it was reported that black cars had been impounded for weeks in Ashgabat, a result of President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov's conviction that black cars bring bad luck.

The Ukrainian construction firm Interbudmontazh has proposed construction of a subway (metropolitan) line, to connect the Ashgabat-Siti residential area in the northern suburbs to downtown Ashgabat.

Autobahn

Ashgabat is linked to Tejen, Mary, Türkmenabat and neighbouring countries by the country's 600 km autobahn network.

Railway

Ashgabat has a single central railway station. In May 2009 the restoration of the Ashgabat railway station was completed. The railway station is made in Soviet-style architecture with its long point on the building roof.

The Trans-Caspian Railway ( Türkmenbaşy–Balkanabat–Bereket–Ashgabat–Mary–Türkmenabat) runs through Ashgabat from east to west. Since 2006 there is also a train line from Ashgabat to the north, the Trans-Karakum Railway.

As of July 2021, the following railway routes are scheduled from and to Ashgabat:

*Ashgabat-Balkanabat
*Ashgabat- Türkmenbaşy
* Ashgabat- Dashoguz
* Ashgabat-Sarahs
* Ashgabat-Serhetabat
* Ashgabat- Amyderýa

City buses and trolleybus

Public transport in the city consists mainly of buses. More than 100 bus lines cover a total range of more than with 700 buses running on urban routes. The city primarily uses Iran Khodro 0457 (Mercedes-Benz) and Hyundai New Super Aero City buses. Bus timetables and detailed schematic map of the route are at every stop. Distances between stops are about 300–500 meters.

Travel in the Ashgabat city public transport for the majority of the country's population incurs a fee. Money is thrown into a box next to the driver. Large bills are given to the driver, he gives change. The fare for travel in city public transport is 50 Turkmen tenge (since 2017). Route taxi (marshrutka

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