Silk Roads Sites in Turkmenistan

I went to five locations of this serial nomination, perhaps even six without knowing. They are covering the entire country and if you go SOMEWHERE you can just ask for an extra one to cover this. I am not sure all would be included in the final listing because some are just forgotten realms.

My first, and probably the easiest to cover, is Anau. The mosque here has been ruined by an earthquake and it would probably would look good. I saw the original in the museum and there is a famous story about dragons - something I won't get into before you know it yourself - and this is definitely a highlight. It's even better if you actually got the background in the museum first because frankly seeing the remains are a bit sad. As it's just at the outer edges of Ashgabat with facilities and restaurant this is a good stopover.

Second stop was Abiverd. Because I requested this we didn't take the new highway to Turkmenabad. The stopover wasn't long - in fact nobody was else was interested to check it out. The walls are low and rained off - in fact I think this would disappear in a few decades without any care and maintenance. I walked through this for 10 minutes but after you see one corner of the site the rest is all the same. Definitely NOT a highlight but not the worse of the bunch! I don't have a picture of …

I visited the silk road site of Anau in June 2017. Being relatively close to Ashgabat (around 8km) I made an extra effort to visit the remains of the Seyitdzhemaliddin Mosque included on Turkmenistan's tentative list.

Anau derives from Abi-anau meaning new water and surely enough there's a well and water system just next to the mosque. The mosque was heavily damaged by the Ashgabat earthquake, however locals still pray (mostly for fertility) at this site. There are a few turquoise tiles left but nothing really outstanding which would add value to the WH list in my opinion.

The road between Mary and Ashgabat is possibly the most boring stretch that I have ever travelled on. My fellow travellers made a joke out of it - "Is this on your List too? It should be." It took us over 7 hours to reach the Turkmen capital. Our minibus could only reach an average speed of 50km per hour because of the many holes and bumps in the road.

An hour before we arrived in Ashgabat we had a final stop to stretch our legs. It was at a place called Abiwerd just near the road. I took some obligatory photos, just in case this tiny archeological site would ever show up on a WH or Tentative List.

My surprise couldn't have been bigger when I came home and discovered that Turkmenistan had just entered a new Tentative Site called "Silk Roads Sites in Turkmenistan". And what is part of it? Abiverd!

Abiverd or Abiwerd is an ancient fortified settlement. The remains near the road are merely silhouettes of ancient structures, although a local boy came to us to point out a fortress a bit further inland.