Photo Essay: Turkmenistan's Shining Marble City, Ashgabat

December 9, 2020

Little of the Soviet legacy survives in Turkmenistan. Since gaining independence after the fall of the USSR, Turkmenistan has articulated a new identity and vision for the future through a series of remarkable architectural projects.

Over the last decade, “Distinguished Architect of Turkmenistan" President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow has embarked on a mammoth project of reconstruction and beautification of the capital city, Ashgabat. Dozens of historical monuments have been destroyed and thousands of buildings demolished. In their place are enormous white marble stadiums, monuments and modern citadels unlike anything seen in the West. Spanish photographer Arnau Rovira Vidal visited the insular country in 2018, and took these photos of the white city.

President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow enjoys breaking world records. The Alem Entertainment Center entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest enclosed Ferris wheel in 2012. It cost $90m to build.

Ashgabat's Wedding Palace can register 7 pairs of newlyweds at once. There are three celebration halls, seven banquet halls and a room where newlyweds are required to pose in front of a portrait of the President.

More than 70% of Turkmenistan is desert. Water supply is insecure, with around 90% coming from a single source: the Amu Darya river. Water has also been diverted to supply extravagant fountains springing up in Ashgabat’s public squares.

In 2010, Ashgabat was picked to host the 2017 Asian Indoor Games. The government commissioned an entire new village for athletes and renovated the city’s main stadium.

The Ashgabat Olympic Stadium features a 600 ton white marble horse head. President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has dedicated several poems and songs to the Akhal-Teke, a Turkmen horse breed.

Ashgabat holds another obscure world record. The highest concentration of white marble-clad buildings in the world. There are 543 new buildings clad with marble, covering a total area of 4.5 million square metres.

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