Ashgabat Things to Do

Arch of Neutrality, which is a large tripod, upon which a golden statue of Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov. This statue rotates in order to always face the sun during daylight hours. It is said to be made of pure gold!!!))))

Turkmenistan is Saparmurat Niyazov and Saparmurat Niyazov is the Turkmenbasi ( the leader of Turkmens) so the world and Ashgabat is turning around this personality.This is the palace of Turkmenbasi.Almost all buildigs carries his name..Now I am courious to know what will happen after his death...

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This Kipchak mosque, also called 'Turkmenbashi Ruhy Metjidi' is situated a bit outside Ashgabat town. This rather new mosque, built in 2001 by the president Niyazov, is one of the largest mosques in Central Asia. The minarets are 91 meter high. About ten thousand pilgrims can visit the mosque at the same time. Niyazov built this mosque at the place where his mother and tow brothers were killed by the earthquake of 1948.

The mosque looks impressive by its scale, white marble and golden cupola's, but in some way it felt like the mosque misses the atmosphere and soul mosques usual have. It's peculiar, this mosque is the first mosque I ever visited which has no Arabic texts from the Koran. What is written inside the mosque is in the Turkmen language. They told me these are texts from the Ruhnama, the important Turkmen book written by president Niyazov. In this book he wrote his version of Turkmen history, culture and spirituality.

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In the huge green area of Berzengi south of the citycentre not only huge white marble buildings are built in a spacious green setting, but it looks like that for every event a new monument is built.

In 2001 at the 10th anneversary of the independence in 1991 a new monument is erected. When you enter the spacious area the first thing you see is a huge gold coloured staue of the president. And believe me this is not the only place in town where you will find his golden statue.

There are also a lot of fountains all over the place like almost everywhere in this hot and dry city. In the 'lonely planet' I red that only the insane and very unfortunate will visit Ashgabat in summer. I was there in july and I survived, not only because of the fountains.

The most important part of the monument is a huge fountain with horses at the top. This monument is at the same time a tribute to the famous Turkmen Akhal-Teke horses, being an important heritage of the country for a long time.

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During our short stay in Ashgabat we had not the opportunity to visit the Tolkuchka Bazaar 8km north of town, because we were not there during marketdays. Maybe our visit to the Russian Market in the citycentre was not really an adequate substitute, but it was very pleasant and interesting to walk around at this lively market for some hours.

I always like it to stroll around at markets to get a glimpse of daily life. At the Russian market they sell food like fresh vegetables, fruits, herbs, spices, bread, sweets, meat, but also alcoholic drinks and huge nicily decorated cakes. There werd also small shops selling clothes, books and colourful plastic baths and toys for playing in and with water.

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When you return from the monument for 10 years of indepence and walk back to the street, you will see huge arches of white marble at the south side of the street.

Believe it or not: this structure is built as monument in 2002 to celebrate eleven years of independence, as our tourguide told us. Every few months new white marble buildings and structures appear in the south Berzengi area of the city. Not of all our guide knew the meaning. Maybe it's is just the way how the public space in the south of Ashgabat is designed.

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Ashgabat is the town of huge and ostentatious monuments with large and spacious parks around. Even if you don't like to visit monuments, you need at least to visit one or a few to look at the scale, ornaments, the fountains and details. It's part of Ashgabat´s appearance and culture anyway.

This monument is told to be a symbol connecting the past and future of Turkmenistan. Around the central part, looking like a huge yurt with needle, you can see lots of dark statues of the heroes of Turkmenistan and fighters for the freedom of Turkmenistan.

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The Ertogul Gazi mosque in the citycentre of Ashgabat has a lovely oriental architecture. The appearance of the mosque shows the connection with the Ottoman and Turkish architecture. There is a obvious resemblance with the Süleymaniye Mosque or Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

The mosque has four minarets. The inner court has nicily decorated ceilings (picture 3) and black-white ornaments (picture 1, 3 , 5). I liked the scenic views from the innercourt at the minarets (picture (4 & 5).