50 Fun Facts About Turkmenistan

Which country is, like Turkmenistan, one of the six independent Turkic states?

Kyrgyzstan. The others are Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, yet Turkmenistan alone has held back from full membership of their club, the Organization of Turkic States, and sits in as an observer.

Which desert covers most of Turkmenistan?

The Karakum. Its name means 'black sand', and it leaves Turkmenistan one of Asia's most thinly peopled countries, with most towns strung along oases at the desert's edge.

Before entering politics, what was the profession of Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, Turkmenistan's second president?

Dentist. He rose to be Niyazov's health minister, took over as leader when Niyazov died, and then built a personality cult of his own under the title Arkadag, "Protector".

Which country lies along Turkmenistan's southern border, separated by the Kopet Dag mountains?

Iran. The Kopet Dag sits in an active earthquake zone, and in 1948 a quake at its foot largely destroyed Ashgabat.

The burning Darvaza gas crater in Turkmenistan goes by what nickname?

Door to Hell. Nobody is sure how it began: the popular story blames a Soviet drilling accident in 1971, but Turkmen geologists say it formed in the 1960s and was only lit in the 1980s.

A gold-plated statue of Niyazov that once crowned a giant arch in Ashgabat was built to always face what?

The sun. His successor had the monument taken down in 2010 and rebuilt on the edge of the city, where the gilded Niyazov no longer turns.

What was Niyazov's spiritual guidebook, treated like scripture in schools and mosques, called?

Ruhnama. Its reach was total: even learner drivers had to pass an exam on it, said to teach them 'the high moral principles of Turkmen society'.

When Niyazov renamed the months of the year in 2002, which month took his own title, Türkmenbaşy?

January. He put himself first in the calendar and gave April his mother's name; his successor scrapped the new names in 2008 and brought the old ones back.

Niyazov is widely reported to have replaced the Turkmen word for which everyday item with his mother's name?

Bread. His obituaries report the swap to Gurbansoltan, the name he also gave the month of April until his successor restored the old calendar in 2008.

How is Serdar Berdimuhamedow, Turkmen president from 2022, related to his predecessor?

Son. Gurbanguly stepped down in 2022 and Serdar won the election that followed, but the father kept his grip as head of the People's Council with the title National Leader.

Which Soviet post did Niyazov hold before Turkmenistan's independence in 1991?

Party boss. He had led the republic's Communist Party since 1985 and backed the hardline coup against Gorbachev in 1991, only to declare independence that autumn as the Soviet Union fell apart.

The five carpet medallions stacked on Turkmenistan's flag each stand for one of the country's main what?

Tribes. Each of the main Turkmen tribes has its own rug medallion, or gul, so the flag's red stripe stacks five of them.

Turkmen hand-knotted carpets are commonly, but wrongly, sold in the West under what name?

Bukhara rugs. Few Turkmens live around the Uzbek city; the label probably stuck because some of their rugs reached Western buyers through its markets.

The Akhal-Teke, Turkmenistan's national horse breed, is nicknamed the 'Golden Horse' because of what?

Its metallic sheen. The gleam shows best on dun coats, which can shine like polished gold, so pale gold became the colour breeders prize most.

Turkmenistan celebrates a national holiday on the second Sunday of August devoted to which fruit?

The melon. Niyazov raised the fruit to a national holiday in 1994, and state television hailed it as a godsend with a glorious history.

In 2020 Turkmenistan's president unveiled a six-metre golden statue in Ashgabat honouring his favourite breed of which animal?

Dog. It honours the Alabai, a home-bred Turkmen shepherd dog to which the president had already devoted a book, and which the state lists as national heritage.

Niyazov built the 'Walk of Health', a concrete stairway into the mountains, and made which group hike it every year?

Government officials. Ministers and state employees had to make the long climb once a year, while Niyazov himself flew by helicopter to meet them at the finish.

Which country is the largest buyer of Turkmen gas, via pipelines across Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan?

China. A pipeline opened in 2009 broke Russia's grip on Turkmen exports, most of which had until then flowed north through Russian pipes.

In 2025 Turkmenistan was the source of most of the world's largest leaks of which greenhouse gas?

Methane. Sensors in orbit traced the plumes to leaky wells and pipes, which campaigners find maddening: the escaping methane is simply natural gas that could be captured and sold.

Merv, an oasis once among the great cities of the Islamic world, was destroyed by which invaders in 1221?

The Mongols. Merv had reached its peak as a Seljuk capital; after the sack it was partly rebuilt, but it never regained its former prosperity.

The ruined fortresses of Nisa, a World Heritage Site near Ashgabat, were an early seat of which ancient empire?

The Parthian Empire. From this corner of today's Turkmenistan the Parthians grew into the power that stopped Rome's expansion to the east.

What happened to President Berdimuhamedow moments after he rode to victory in a 2013 race in Ashgabat?

He fell off his horse. State television reported only his win and its $11 million prize, but leaked video of him lying face down on the track spread online.

The Turkmen descend from which Turkic confederation, whose Seljuk clan went on to build a great medieval empire?

The Oghuz. Medieval Turkmens called themselves Oghuz, and the groups that pushed west from Central Asia became the ancestors of today's Turks and Azerbaijanis as well.

After independence, Turkmenistan dropped the Cyrillic alphabet in favour of which script?

Latin. It was a return, not a novelty: Turkmen had already been written in Latin letters from the late 1920s until Cyrillic replaced them in 1940.

What is Turkmenistan's currency?

The manat. It replaced the rouble in 1993, and when energy prices slumped in 2015 it was devalued by about a fifth against the dollar.

In 1995 the UN General Assembly recognised Turkmenistan's status as what?

Permanently neutral. Turkmenistan guards the status proudly: in 2017 it persuaded the UN to make 12 December, the anniversary, the International Day of Neutrality.

Ashgabat holds a Guinness World Record for its concentration of buildings clad in which material?

White marble. The city was flattened by an earthquake in 1948, and since independence almost every new public building has been given the same gleaming stone face.

The Alem centre in Ashgabat holds a Guinness World Record for housing an enclosed version of which fairground ride?

Ferris wheel. Ashgabat collects such records: its giant flagpole was also the world's tallest when it went up in 2008, until Azerbaijan raised a taller one two years later.

In 2004 Niyazov ordered what to be built in the mountains outside his desert capital, big enough for 1,000 people?

An ice palace. 'Let us build a palace of ice,' he told the nation on television, in one of the hottest countries on Earth; an indoor ice rink was later built near the capital.

In 2005 Niyazov ordered the closure of which public services everywhere outside the capital?

Hospitals. His reasoning was that the sick could simply travel to Ashgabat for treatment; thousands of health workers had already been sacked.

The Soviet-era irrigation canal crossing the desert to the capital draws from which river?

The Amu Darya. The canal waters farms and the capital, but drawing so much from the river is a major reason the Aral Sea, which it once fed, has shrivelled.

Which crop are Turkmen teachers and doctors reportedly sent into the fields to pick, on pain of losing their jobs?

Cotton. The crop took over Turkmen farming in Soviet times, when a huge desert canal opened new land to it; rights groups say state workers are still forced into the harvest.

In 2004 Niyazov announced that young Turkmen men should stop wearing what?

Beards and long hair. A word from the president was treated as law: young men turned up clean-shaven and short-haired almost overnight.

What did the Turkmen state provide free of charge from 1993 until 2019?

Gas, electricity and water. Niyazov made them free soon after independence; his successor ended the giveaway as falling energy prices squeezed the state's income.

The traditional tall, shaggy hat worn by Turkmen men is called what?

Telpek. Its thick sheepskin insulates against heat as well as cold, so Turkmen elders keep the hat on even in the fierce desert summer.

Followers of which faith built its first-ever house of worship in Ashgabat in the early 1900s?

Baháʼís. The Soviet state took the temple over and turned it into an art gallery; badly damaged by the 1948 earthquake, it was demolished in 1963.

After the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake killed his mother, where did the young Saparmurat Niyazov grow up?

In a Soviet orphanage. State propaganda later made much of these humble beginnings, and the mother he lost became a centrepiece of his personality cult.

Throughout the pandemic, what did Turkmenistan's authorities claim about COVID-19 inside the country?

No cases at all. Turkmenistan never reported a single infection, a claim outside observers reject as fiction, since the state censors any news of an outbreak.

In 2000 Niyazov announced plans to create what in the middle of the desert, over scientists' objections?

A vast artificial lake. It was meant to guarantee water supplies, but scientists warned it could wreck the environment, and critics saw money that should have gone to welfare.

Polina Guryeva won Turkmenistan's first-ever Olympic medal, a silver at the Tokyo Games, in which sport?

Weightlifting. Her silver came in the 59 kg class, and a grateful state rewarded her with an apartment, a car and $50,000.

In 2004 Niyazov used a televised ceremony to urge Turkmens to give up which popular fashion?

Gold teeth. He advised gnawing on bones to keep natural teeth strong, and told one young woman to have her gold caps swapped for white ones.

The port of Türkmenbaşy, the Russians' base for conquering the region, was known until 1993 by what name?

Krasnovodsk. Founded as a Russian fort, it kept that name until Niyazov gave the port the title he had taken for himself.

The oasis city of Merv grew rich in the Middle Ages as a major stop on which trade route?

The Silk Road. Each new Merv was built beside the last, and the old city was abandoned and never built over, which is why its ruins are among the best preserved on the route.

In January 2022 the president ordered what done to the Darvaza crater?

Its fire extinguished. He said the blaze harmed health and burned gas that could be sold, yet the crater was still alight years later, though the authorities said in 2025 that it had shrunk.

In 2011 Turkmenistan's president said he would limit the number of which devices, a move seen as curbing foreign media?

Satellite dishes. With every domestic channel run by the state, the dishes are how Turkmens watch foreign television, so the authorities have at times simply taken them down.

Turkmenistan is roughly the same size as which European country?

Spain. The two are almost the same size, yet Spain holds many times more people, because desert covers most of Turkmenistan.

Which two forms of entertainment did Niyazov ban as alien to Turkmen culture?

Opera and circus. Ballet was banned alongside them, the regime dismissing such performances as unnecessary for Turkmens.

Turkmenistan's first railway grew into which Russian line to Samarkand and Tashkent?

Trans-Caspian Railway. It reached Samarkand in 1888 and Tashkent a decade later, and goods that had crossed Central Asia by caravan were soon going by rail instead.

Niyazov's name was given to towns, schools, airports and even which object from space?

A meteorite. Nothing was too large or too small for the cult around him, which also put up thousands of his statues and portraits across the country.

What prompted Niyazov to ban smoking in all public places in 1997?

His own heart surgery. Forced to quit, he ordered every one of his ministers to give up too, then barred smoking in public for everyone else.