A country · 42 places · 5 regions
Turkmenistan, all of it.
42 curated places across 5 regions — photographed, mapped, and noted with the season each is best in.
The 4 biggest regions — Ahal Region, Lebap Region, Mary Region and Daşoguz Region — read below as chapters, with 1 more waiting past them.
Chapter I · Ahal Region · 10 places
Ahal Region
The Darvaza gas crater, informally known as the Door to Hell, is a natural gas blowout in the Karakum Desert that has burned continuously since the 1970s when a Soviet drilling operation collapsed into a subterranean cavern. The roughly 70-metre-wide crater glows orange at night and is visible from several kilometres across the flat desert, radiating intense heat and the smell of sulphur. It is one of the most unusual and widely photographed geological spectacles in Central Asia.
via Wikimedia CommonsChapter II · Lebap Region · 6 places
Lebap Region
A remote mountain range in the far east of Turkmenistan holding deep caves, a plateau of fossilized dinosaur tracks and rare wildlife. Its canyons and springs stand in sharp contrast to the surrounding desert.
✦ April to June
Chapter III · Mary Region · 4 places
Mary Region
The excavated remains of a Bronze Age settlement in the Karakum, center of an ancient oasis civilization along the Murghab River. Its mud-brick palaces, temples and tombs reveal a complex society that flourished thousands of years ago.
via Wikimedia CommonsChapter IV · Daşoguz Region · 2 places
Daşoguz Region
A northern Turkmen city on the edge of the Kyzylkum desert and the main gateway to the Konye-Urgench ruins. It sits in the historic oasis of ancient Khorezm.
✦ April to June, September to October
Regions of Turkmenistan
Every place in Turkmenistan
