Ashgabat: A Marble Oasis in the Turkmen Desert

The grandiose desert city of Ashgabat, capital of Turkmenistan, is a dreamscape in white marble, an oasis of opulence on a terrain where little seems to grow except ambition and immaculate high-rises.



A golden statue of former Turkmen leader Saparmurat Niyazov, the self-appointed Father of the Turkmen, stands atop Ashgabat's Arch of Neutrality.



An ex-Soviet apparatchik, Niyazov ruled Turkmenistan from 1985 until his death in 2006 — a period during which the month January, a planet, a crater on the Moon, a horse breed, and a myriad of streets were named after him.



Read the full story: Ashgabat: White Marble Oasis Under a Rule of Steel

Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, translates as the ?€?City of Love?€? in Turkmen and Arabic.

Portraits of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, who took the helm following Niyazov's death in 2006, are ubiquitous in Ashgabat.

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, a former dentist, flashes his pearly whites on nearly every front page and cover.

Turkmenistan's flag features five tribal designs known as guls. These designs represent the traditional patterns found on handwoven carpets in the country's five regions.

The five-billion-dollar Ashgabat Olympic Complex will host the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in 2017.

Students of Turkmenistan's National Institute of Sports and Tourism warming up for a wrestling practice.

The Turkmen capital has a penchant for all things big. The city is home to the world's largest handwoven carpet [left], the largest enclosed Ferris wheel and a 6,000-seat velodrome, the largest facility of its kind on the globe.

In 2013, Ashgabat set a Guinness World Record for having the highest density of marble-clad buildings.

Ashgabat is sandwiched between the Kopet Dag mountain range and the Karakum Desert. In the summer, temperatures regularly rise above 30 degrees Celsius.

Turkmenistan is the fourth largest former Soviet Union republic and the second largest Central Asian state.

Ashgabat prides itself in its gilded ornaments and intricate architectural structures.

Turkmen students, both male and female, wear uniforms in school and at the university level. The boys' uniform consists of a black suit and tie, a white dress shirt and a takhya, a traditional embroidered skullcap.

A majority of Turkmen women wear traditional floor-length dresses in public.

Golden statues of the former leader are still a common sight in Ashgabat.

Golden statues of the former leader are still a common sight in Ashgabat.