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There are some weird and wonderful places in the world, with Turkmenistan being held as the 'new' North Korea. Sandwiched between Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Iran, the sparsely populated country has the fourth-largest natural gas reserves in the world - making it more than the United States.
As the heart of Turkmenistan is the capital of Ashgabat, which despite a cost of $14 billion to make it the shining monument of white marble it is today, has a population of just 1,030,063 (according to a 2022 census).
Turkmenistan isn't just known for its Gateway to Hell burning for the past 50 years, with Ashgabat attracting a new breed of 'dark tourists' who want to take a glimpse inside this place that's said to be almost as strict as North Korea.
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Although Ashgabat has existed since 1881, a 1948 earthquake flattened much of it and buried two-thirds of its population under rubble.
Under the rule of the late Saparmurat Niyazov's "White City" urban renewal project, Ashgabat has grown into the so-called 'city of the dead'. When 'new Ashgabat' was founded in the early noughties, Niyazov once said: "We shall only build with white marble. Greedy people don’t get it, they seek for other materials, we have to give orders."
In a 2018 article in The Guardian, documentarian David Farrier explained what it was like going there when he featured Ashgabat in an episode of his Dark Tourist Netflix series. Turkmenistan had negotiated the ability to host the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, and with it, constructed a $5 billion village with massive stadiums.
According to Farrier, Ashgabat has the record for the highest density of buildings that are made from white marble.
As well as the Ashgabat Fountain complex holding the record for the "Most Fountain Pools in a Public Place", there's a four-foot gold statue of Niyazov that stands in the middle of the city and rotates once every 24 hours. Other records include the world’s largest indoor ferris wheel and the world’s largest star, with part of the $5 billion Olympic spend going on a giant bird-shaped airport expansion. Although it can handle 14 million passengers a year, an average of just 100,000 people use it annually.
President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov apparently believes that black cars bring bad luck, and notably impounded a number of them in 2018.
Speaking of Berdimuhamedov, the gold-domed Presidential Palace is off limits to the public, and taking photographs is forbidden.
Discussing his time there, Farrier suggested Ashgabat was just a facade as he mused: "Guides steered us where they wanted to go. It was illegal to leave the city limits. Public transport made no sense. There was only one way to do anything."
Giant parks and plazas remain empty, and while an illuminated Ashgabat at night looks like it would be a buzzing metropolis, numerous outlets report how it's a desolate monument of marble that's earned it's 'city of the dead' name.
