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Coverage / Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan

Central Asia

A large, tightly controlled Central Asian republic that is mostly Karakum desert, ringed by the Caspian coast and the Kopet Dag mountains. Its draws are singular: the flaming Darvaza gas crater in the deep desert, the vast Silk Road ruins of ancient Merv, the banded cliffs of the Yangykala canyons, and the white-marble showpiece capital of Ashgabat. Tourism is real but state-mediated, run entirely through licensed local operators who arrange the mandatory Letter of Invitation, guide and itinerary.

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What you can do in Turkmenistan

Museums & Galleries

Ancient MervApr May Sep OctAncient Merv was once one of the largest cities on earth, a Silk Road capital that rivaled Baghdad and Damascus before the Mongols destroyed it in 1221. What survives, spread across kilometres of desert near modern Mary, is a set of stacked walled cities rather than a single ruin. You walk from the oldest core at Erk Kala, through the Hellenistic and Sasanian district of Gyaur Kala, to the Seljuk capital of Sultan Kala, where the restored mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar still stands under its great dome. The corrugated mud-brick walls of the Great and Little Kyz Kala keeps rise nearby. It is a place you read slowly, with a guide to make sense of the earth mounds and brickwork, and it sees very few visitors, so you often have a thousand years of history to yourself.

Overlanding / Expedition Driving

DarvazaApr May Sep OctThe Darvaza gas crater is the reason most travelers come to Turkmenistan, and the way to reach it is a 4x4 expedition into the Karakum, the desert that covers most of the country. The crater is a wide pit of natural gas that has burned without pause since Soviet geologists set it alight in 1971, roaring loudest and glowing brightest after dark. The classic trip drives out from Ashgabat, crosses open sand to the rim, and camps for the night so you see the fire against a black desert sky and a full field of stars. Along the way you pass the smaller water and mud craters near Darvaza and cross a landscape of dunes, saxaul scrub and near-total silence. It is expedition travel, remote and self-contained, run by a local crew who carry fuel, water and camping kit, and outside the crater itself you are unlikely to see anyone else.

Photography Expeditions

Yangykala CanyonApr May Sep OctYangykala is the most photogenic landscape in Turkmenistan and one of the least visited, a canyon system in the far west whose name means fiery fortress. Its cliffs and flat-topped mesas are banded in white, pink and deep rust red, the exposed floor of the ancient Tethys sea lifted and cut into ridges that run for tens of kilometres. The colour shifts through the day and catches fire at sunrise and sunset, which is when photographers position on the rim, and the scale is hard to convey until you stand at the edge of a drop with nothing built in any direction. There is no town, no fence and no signage, so trips come out with a 4x4 and camp on the plateau. The nearby Gozly Ata shrine and the Caspian coast are often folded into the same route across the Balkan desert.

Best months at a glance

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Museums
Overlanding
Photography