Mary, Turkmenistan - Мары, Туркменистан

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• published: 15 Dec 2015
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Мары́ (туркм. Mary, до 1937 года назывался Мерв от перс. مرو‎) — город на юге Туркмении, названный в честь древнего города Мерв, центр Марыйского велаята. Четвёртый по величине город Туркменистана. Расположен в юго-восточной части Туранской низменности на территории Мургабского оазиса в дельте реки Мургаб, берущей своё начало в горах Афганистана. С юга город огибает Каракумский канал. Крупный железнодорожный узел, важный узел автодорог. Mary, formerly named Merv and Margiana, is a city on an oasis in the Karakum Desert, located on the Murghab river. It is the capital city of Mary Province, Turkmenistan. The ancient city of Merv was an oasis city on the Silk Road. It was occupied by Imperial Russia in 1884, triggering the Panjdeh Incident between Afghan forces and the Imperial Russian Army. The modern settlement was founded later that year as a Russian military and administrative post. A force of the British Indian Army consisting of a machine gun detachment comprising 40 Punjabi troops and a British officer resisted the Bolsheviks near Merv in August 1918 in what was the first direct confrontation between British and Russian troops since the Crimean War. Mary was developed by the Soviet Union as a center for cotton production through the use of extensive irrigation. In 1968, huge reserves of natural gas were discovered 20 kilometers west of the city.