Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

Ashgabat - darkometer rating : 2 - (but extra marks on the weirdness scale!) The capital city of Turkmenistan is one of the strangest cities in the world. It has quite aptly been described as a kind of cross between Las Vegas and North Korea 's Pyongyang . The extreme eccentricity of the all-pervading Turkmenbashy cult of personality is today slightly less omnipresent, but it is still a pretty unique place well worth exploring for travellers with a taste for the bizarre. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: Ashgabat (population ca. 1 million), capital of today's Turkmenistan , is nestled between the Karakum desert and the Kopet Dag mountain range, which forms the border with Iran. It is a relatively young city – in more than one sense. It developed out of a mere village only a couple of centuries ago, and only really became a city under Russian rule. Heavy development followed during Soviet times. But in 1948 one of the deadliest earthquakes of all time almost wiped the whole city out again. The quake measured an estimated 7.3 on the Richter scale. Almost every brick or concrete structure collapsed. The death toll was also massive, presumably over 100,000, possibly up to 180,000, which would have been two-thirds of the entire population! Exact figures are hard to ascertain, as usual with disasters in Soviet times. Facts were typically suppressed and the casualty figures given way too low – which had the added knock-on effect that aid measures were grossly insufficient. The rebuilt Soviet city of Ashgabat was, typical for any larger Soviet conurbation, dominated by bleak apartment blocks. Many of these still stand, some have been refurbished.