Silk Road: News, Events, Articles

Turkmenistan, from time immemorial located on the crossroad of routes of the ancient Great Silk Road, has all the reasons to act today as one of the main transit states on this old transcontinental highway that is being restored to life.

National program "Strategy of social and economic reform in Turkmenistan for the period up to the year of 2010" provides for a radical change of an existing transport infrastructure. In the realization of projects on development of transport communications development Turkish and Iranian companies act as the principal partners of Turkmenistan.

The largest construction sites of the country today are Trans-Karakum railroad and highway. Both these transport arteries with a length of 550 kilometers each are to cross the desert from South to North - from Ashgabad to Dashoguz. Total cost of both roads construction will exceed one billion US dollars.

On getting over the sands of the Karakum Desert, the builders will have to construct the transport communications to Dashoguz, administrative center of the region and the oasis in the north of Turkmenistan, both bearing the same name. Here the new roads are to join the existing ones. Consequently, the direct route will be ensures for both cargo traffic and tourism traffic from Southern and Central regions of Turkmenistan to Kazakh port Aktay on the Kaspian Sea and further on to the cities of Russia and European Union.

It will provide a rather strong stimulus for the further development of the North of Turkmenistan, Dashoguz oasis, which was the centre of the world's most ancient civilization of farmers and for centuries served as the main crossroad on the Great Silk Road. At numerous bazaars of this ancient oasis one could buy all the oriental goods that were in demand in Europe.

Rich historical past and a number of the unique monuments of medieval architecture, make the Dashoguz oasis quite a perspective region for cultural tourism. On the territory of the oasis there have been found the ruins of the ancient capital of Khorezm - Kunya-Urgench. Among the masterpieces of the 12th-13th-century architecture there are the Mausoleum of Khorezm Shakh Tekesh, the Palace of Turabekhanum, 60-metre high minaret, the highest minaret in Central Asia among those, which have remained intact to the present day.

Turkmenistan government plans to reconstruct the 600-kilometre highway from Ashgabad to Turkmenabad. This road will become a high-speed highway with six-row traffic and the facilities acknowledged in the world practice. The autobahn will link Turkmen capital with the eastern regions of the country and will join the road network of Uzbekistan on the Turkmen-Uzbek boundary.

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