The city with multiple buildings clad in marble to the world it is not found in Italy as some might think, but in Asia: we are talking about Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan. To give you an idea, let’s talk about over 4.5 million m2 Of white Carrara marble. This is a gigantic sum, so much so that the city was awarded the Guinness World Records For “the city with the highest density of marble-clad buildings“.
But why was this stone used so much? And what is the history of this city?
Brief history of the city
To understand what reason lies behind all this unbridled luxury, we must first take a step back and briefly talk about the history of Ashgabat. The city rises in Central Asiain the central area of Karakum desert and is the capital of Turkmenistan from the 1924.
Founded in 1881, this city was almost entirely razed to the ground by a violent man earthquake of magnitude 7.1 In the 1948 and it is estimated that, on that occasion, they died approximately 110 thousand people. The capital was then rebuilt in the Soviet style typical of the time. This was at least until 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed and Turkmenistan officially became a free country.
At that point the dictator came to power Saparmurat Niyazov and under his leadership the massive exploitation of the enormous reserves officially began natural gas present underground, making the country one of the most prosperous of Central Asia.
This prompted Niyazov to make a new capital, performing in a few km2 all the wealth acquired by the State – wealth that is not limited only to huge quantities of marble usedbut also to the gold used: think that to create the dome of the Presidential Palace were spent approx 250 million dollars!
Ashgabat marble
The city has an area of approximately 22km2 (almost as much as Aosta) and, from the 90s to today, they have been built 543 new buildings coated with 4,513,584 square meters of very white Carrara marble slabs. Precisely for this reason, as anticipated, it was awarded a world record.
Think that only along the Bitarap Turkmenistan Sayolu – the main street of Ashgabat – there are 170 buildings aligned for 2.6kmcovered by over 1.15 million m2 of marble.
But… what kind of buildings are we talking about? It’s mainly about public buildings, museums, residential complexes And monuments dedicated to the main Turkmen political leaders, which alternate with wide streets and gardens cared for down to the smallest detail.
Among all the marble works, however, what particularly catches the eye is theAlem Entertainment Centerthat is, the covered Ferris wheel largest in the world – also a Guinness World Record holder since 2012 – cost approx 170 million euros.
But tourism… isn’t there
Such a flashy city is sure to attract millions of visitors every year…or not? Well, actually no. Currently Turkmenistan is among the 10 least visited countries in the worldwith alone 8-9 thousand tourists every year. This is largely linked to difficulty in obtaining the visa to visit the place, so much so that some compare Turkmenistan to North Korea in terms of difficulty of access. Even if you manage to obtain a visa, stays ranging from 3 to 7 days – often with the constraint of being accompanied by a guide along specific routes.
Among other things, the few tourists who manage to reach the capital claim that there is no one around! This is because the luxurious part of the city is nothing but one red herringsort of dispay window to give a strong image of itself abroad. The people who live in Ashgabat in fact live in the outskirts, in areas that are anything but hyper-luxurious and certainly far from the tourist routes that are organised. Even many of the palaces built of shimmering white marble are but gods huge empty buildings, used only to make a good impression.
However, it seems that the country’s regime, albeit timidly, is intent on reduce isolationism in the coming years. An example is given by the construction in 2013 from the Awaza tourist areaa sort of holiday area about 1 hour by plane from the capital. The goal? Trying to emulate the boom experienced by Middle Eastern metropolises such as Dubai.
By the way, one of the most curious attractions of Turkmenistan is the so-called “gate of hell”. To learn more, here is a video ad hoc that we have achieved:
