Guide to Turkmenistan
Must See Turkmenistan
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Once one of Central Asia's greatest cities, Merv is an archaeologist's dream and has moved travel writers to muse for pages on the life and death of civilisations, but may leave the casual visitor a bit nonplussed. The area wears the remains of no less than five walled cities from different periods.
To the untrained-eye Merv is a lumpen landscape scarred with ditches and channels, grazed by camels and dotted every now and then with an earthwork mound or a battered sandy-brick structure. It retains a certain melancholic charm, and Sultan Sanjar's mausoleum is impressive in size and solidity.
Merv's origins are shrouded in conjecture and romance - one legend suggests it was founded by Zoroaster - but this oasis settlement was definitely a Silk Road staging post and reached its greatest heights in the 11th and 12th centuries when the Seljuqs made it their capital. Merv is a short drive east of Mary, seven hours east of Ashghabat by train.