Travel to Turkmenistan www.kosmostrip.net Mild Adventure (9 days) Day 1 Ashgabat arrival (B) Early in the morning arrive in Ashgabat. Meet Turkmen guide and driver. Transfer to hotel for overnight. Late morning start sightseeing Ashgabat, visiting independence-period parks and monuments, including the Neutrality Square, and the National Museum of History, whose halls are dedicated to various themes and historical periods. Demonstrating a rich collection of artefacts from all over Turkmenistan, including ivory rhytons from Old Nisa, the museum will also offer us reconstruction models of most of the sites that we are going to visit. In the evening we head south to the Kopetdag Mountains to take a cable-car ride and see a splendid view of the white-marble capital city. Overnight at hotel Grand Turkmen/Ak Altyn/Ashgabat. Day 2 Ashgabat – Mary/Gonur Depe (B,L-box) Early in the morning we fly to Mary (40 min by Boeing 717 or 737). On arrival in a newly built airport of Mary, we set off north-east, towards Gonur Depe, which used to be the capital of the legendary Margush country. After two hours’ drive through fields and villages and another hour through the desert, we arrive at an important archaeological site, the centre of a remarkable Bronze Age civilisation, discovered in 1972 and explored continuously till 2012 by Prof. Victor Sarianidi. After about two hours of sightseeing, we will have a picnic lunch, lunch boxes that we brought with us from the city, and then head back to Mary. Evening rest. Overnight at hotel Mary/Margush. Day 3 Mary (Merv) – Ashgabat (B) After breakfast, we head 25 km to the east of Mary, towards Bayram-Ali, the contemporary re-incarnation of and humble suburb of the glorious Ancient Merv (UNESCO World Heritage Site). One of the major archaeological sites of Central Asia, Merv played an important part in the development of the Silk Road for more than 2 000 years. Within the limits of the archaeological park, which is 1200 ha, we will have a chance to observe all constituent parts of the “wandering city”. A series of adjacent cities, which can be roughly divided into the ancient (Erk Kala and Gyaur Kala), the medieval (Sultan Kala with its suburbs), and post-medieval (Abdulla-Khan Kala and Bayram-Ali-Khan Kala), appeared in the course of time as a token of the natural progress of the city from initial stages of its existence to a more advanced level. Besides remnants of the cities of Merv, we will visit the VI-IX cc. AD forts of Big and Little Kyz-Kalas, excellent examples of the so-called corrugated Koshks; the splendid XII c. mausoleums of Sultan Sanjar and Muhammed ibn-Zeyd, demonstrating exquisite Seljuk period brickwork and architectural décor. If time and enthusiasm permits, it is possible to visit several more interesting spots within the site. After sightseeing, we head back to Mary. On arrival in Mary, we visit Regional Mary Museum, presenting a wide array of archaeological finds (dating back to the III mill. BC through the late XIX century) from both Ancient Merv and Bronze Age sites of the Margush country. In the afternoon we fly back to Ashgabat (40 minutes by Boeing-717), from a newly built airport of Mary. On arrival in Ashgabat, transfer to hotel. Overnight at hotel Grand Turkmen/Ak Altyn/Ashgabat. Day 4 Ashgabat – Dashoguz (B) This morning we fly to the north of Turkmenistan, Dashoguz, to see outstanding monuments of the Turkmen Khorezm. Arrive in Dashoguz. Drive to Kunya-Urgench (Old Urgench) to see the former capital of the Khorezmshah Empire (100 km). Another World Heritage site, Kunya-Urgench welcomes you with the mausoleum of Turabeg Khanum (15 c.), one of the best architectural examples of its time; the minaret of Kutlug Temur (11-14 cc.), the highest medieval minaret in Central Asia; the mausoleum of Sultan Tekesh (late 12 c.), with a turquoise cone of a dome; and the mausoleum of Il-Arslan (the mid 12 c.), the founder of the pre-Mongol Khorezmshah empire. Before we drive back to Dashoguz, we visit a cosy museum in Kunya-Urgench, the displays of which are located in khujras (prayer cells) of the former madrasah. Each khujra highlights a separate aspect of former life in the area: a student’s room, a jeweller’s room, workshops of blacksmith’s, shoe and cart makers, carpet and silk weavers, and others. Sightseeing over, we return to Dashoguz. Overnight at hotel Dashoguz/Uzboy.

• published: 12 May 2015
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