| Ashgabat is the capital city of Turkmenistan, a country in Central Asia. It has a population of 695,300 (2001 census estimate) and is situated between the Kara Kum desert and the Kopet Dag mountain range. Ashgabat has a primarily Turkmen population, with minorities of ethnic Russians, Armenians, and Azeris. It is 920 km from the second largest city in Iran, Mashhad.
History
Ashgabat is a relatively young city, growing out of a village of the same name established in 1818. It is not far from the site of Nisa, the ancient capital of the Parthians and the ruins of the Silk Road city of Konjikala, which had been destroyed either by an earthquake in the first decade BC, or by the Mongols in the 13th century.
In 1869, Russian soldiers built a fortress on a hill near the village, and this added security soon attracted merchants and craftsmen to the area. Tsarist Russia annexed the region in 1884, and chose to develop the town as a regional center due to its proximity to the border of British-influenced Persia. It was regarded as a pleasant town with European style buildings, shops and hotels.
In 1908, the first Baha'i house of worship was built in Ashgabat. After being taken by Soviet officials, it was seriously damaged as a result of earthquake in 1948 and was demolished by the Soviet authorities in 1963.
Soviet rule was established, lost and then regained in 1917, and the city was renamed Poltoratsk after a local revolutionary. The name "Ashgabat" was restored in 1927 when the Communist Party was properly established in Turkmenistan, though it was usually known by the Russian form Ashkhabad. From this period onward the city experienced rapid growth and industrialisation, although this was severely disrupted by a major earthquake on October 6, 1948. An estimated 7.3 on the Richter scale, the earthquake killed over 110,000 (2/3 the population of the city), although the official number announced by Soviet news was only 14,000. In 1974 another earthquake, measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale, killed 30,000 people and injured over 100,000.
Climate
The Kopet-Dag mountain range is about 25 km to the south, and Ashgabat's northern boundary touches the Kara-Kum desert. Because of this location, Ashgabat has an arid climate with hot and dry summers and mild and short winters. Summer temperatures can easily reach 45°C (113°F) for long periods of time. June through August are hot, with night temperatures normally not falling lower than 30°C (86°F). Autumn is notably less hot, but during the day temperatures can still be 35°C (95°F) whereas nights are pleasantly cooler. Winter normally starts in December; snow is rare and there can be a lot of rain. Normally, winter temperatures are 10-15°C (50-60°F), and rarely can go as low as -10°C (14°F) in January. The lowest temperature was recorded in January 1969, -28°C (-18°F).
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