Today is Wednesday. No cycling on Monday &Tuesday. I spent the two days being shown around Ashgabat.
How to do this city justice?
Tsarist Russia made it the capital of its Transcaspian Region after the defeat and massacre of local forces at Gok Depe in 1881. After several years of factional infighting after the Russian revolution, the Bolsheviks consolidated control in the 1920s.
The city was completely destroyed in an earthquake in 1948. More than 100,000 people were killed.
The Soviets rebuilt – in Soviet style. Many Soviet-era 2 to 3 storey apartment & office blocks still stand. In the centre – almost classical in style and well-maintained. Further out – plainer and a touch dilapidated, but not grotty.
After independence in 1991 the Communist Party Secretary turned President Saparmurat Niyazov decided to make Ashgabat a showpiece for the nation. Considerable portions of the country's budget have been poured into an urban development project of fantastic ambition. Many Soviet-era buildings were demolished. Huge parks, tree-lined avenues, avenues, monuments, statues, public buildings, Ministries, hotels, malls, theatres, stadia, wedding venues, conference halls, museums, apartment blocks, mosques, flyovers and underpasses have been built – many of strikingly original modern design and with no expense spared. The Education Ministry is shaped like a book, the Oil Ministry like an oil rig, the Health Ministry like a cobra, the Foreign Ministry is capped by a giant Earth globe – and so on. There are numerous grand Ministerial buildings; including ones for energy, oil & minerals, finance, economy, defence, communications, national security, internal affairs, foreign affairs, justice, agriculture, foreign affairs, migration (enormous), railways, horses and dogs. Also fine university faculty buildings and several elaborate wedding palaces. Marriages - three-day affairs with hundreds of guests - are obviously big business here. My hotel has a capacious wedding hall annex that has throbbed with post-wedding parties all three of my nights here – until 10.30pm sharp.
All buildings must be white – and many are faced with white marble imported from Italy. All cars too must be white (though a few silver & gold vehicles seem to count as white).
It is all kept spotlessly clean. Teams of women toil constantly sweeping the streets, squares and other public spaces. There is no sign of ongoing construction in the capacious centre – all works have been completed and are now maintained meticulously.
The atmosphere feels entirely artificial. There are no street cafés – in fact little street life at all. During offices hours, practically no pedestrians are about. The parks, squares, pavements and museums are all but deserted.
The c.1 inhabitants are spread out over 470 sq kms, about 2,200 per km sq (compared to 5,700 in London). They live in dozens, hundreds, of apartment blocks. In similarly designed groups. In the centre 12-14 storeys – elegant posh blocks. Further out 6-8 storeys, also elegant.
There is little evident police presence. The main monuments seem to be guarded by a couple of (unarmed) soldiers or police. There are many more traffic police, pulling drivers over to check their papers.
The surveillance cameras are a great deal less obtrusive than in the UK – and seemingly much less numerous. One does not feel one is being watched.
How is control maintained?
Ashgabat was built to be special and to impress. It is special and it is impressive.
Yesterday we drove 15 minutes west to visit the ruins of the central fortress complex of the 3rd Century BC Old Nisa civilisation. Nearly two & a half thousand years later – the once-massive walls are now huge banks. A few of the core buildings have been excavated and semi-restored – but 95% of the 14 hectare site remains unexcavated – the historical reaches beneath the earth remaining still to be discovered. Odd that a regime that places such a high premium on reinforcing (sometimes involving inventing) the Turkmen cultural identity, and spends untold fortunes on trophy buildings in Ashgabat, neglects exploring these astonishing ruins in any depth.
Today a long ride east – along flat roads but cycling against a headwind the whole way. The spring rains have turned the desert a dusty green. Not far outside Ashgabat, some well-tended vineyards and wheat fields. Stopped at the ruined 15hC Seyit Jamal ad-Din Mosque – which had apparently stood for half a millennia but was destroyed by the 1948 earthquake. Later we visit the ruins of the Abiverd Settlement – a substantial caravanserai stop along the Silk Road – but overrun and sacked by the Mongols in the 15hC.