Top 10 Amazing Facts About Turkmenistan
Hello Friends:
Today we are taking a journey to a country you honestly may never have heard of or heard very little of a relatively unknown country located in central asia to many westerners especially this country is turkmenistan it's a predominantly desert covered land once ruled by the soviet union nestled between uzbekistan and iran as well as afghanistan hey guys welcome back to Countries facts and i found some pretty interesting and surprising facts about this country that were pretty much unknown to me had no idea so i'm pretty excited to share these facts with you okay so let's jump into this Article starting at fact.
1 Turkmenistan is actually made up of 70 desert now if you do make it there on a trip to visit you'll notice that the majority of the country is covered in sand it's quite the geographical feature the karakum desert is the name and it is actually known to be one of the most fertile deserts in the entire world but what may really blow your mind though is that the entire area actually used to be the home of a giant sea 30 million years ago.
2 What they say now for the next fact turkmenistan actually declared independence from the soviet union on october 27 1991. in 1925 turkmenistan became a constituent republic of the ussr and was then ruled for 67 years the talk of independence began in the year 1990 when the supreme soviet of turkmenistan declared sovereignty as a nationalist response to potential exploitation by moscow.
3 The country was not yet ready for independence but a man by the name of sapar murad nayazav who was the communist leader at the time who then became president preferred to preserve the soviet union in october 1991 there was a referendum that was called that ended up approving independence.
4 I'm not sure if this next fact surprises me or not to be honest since i've really heard of anybody talk about turkmenistan but it's actually one of the least visited countries in the entire world back in 2012 it was reported that only 8 900 visitors came to the country and in 2018 only 13 000 visitors came now when you compare this to the 15 million visitors to vietnam in 2018 for example you can see there's a massive difference but one of the main reasons for this is due to the country's lengthy and expensive visa process it's not due to the lack of things to see or to do in the country though also similar to turkmenistan's.
5 China most of the internet browsers and apps that we know in the western world and other places are actually blocked in turkmenistan for example instagram twitter and youtube just to name a few yet you can't find them in the country if you do visit the country though you can gain access to a vpn but even then the country is cracking down on people who use them many say that the government doesn't want the outside world to find out too much about what is actually going on in the country and vice versa for their citizens for fact.
6 Let's talk about their many silk road cities and also unesco heritage site turkmenistan's silk roads may not be as famous as that of their neighbor uzbekistan but they are unique and very authentic in their very own way the sites tell a story about the role that the region played as a major trading hub along the silk road between the 8th to the 13th centuries in fact between the 11th to 12th centuries merv which was an ancient lost city in turkmenistan.
7 Turkmenistan was the largest of the silk road urban centers now let's talk about the capital city of turkmenistan it's actually in the guinness book of world records for having the highest density of marble buildings in the entire world the city is known for its grand boulevards fountains statues and glistening white buildings thanks to the building boom brought about by former president sappar murad nayazav this was right after the country gained independence from the soviet union back in the year 1991. the city literally sparkles under the hot desert sun the next up is a pretty important fact literacy and education is a very important thing in turkmenistan it is the rule that every single child has to go to school the government feels that this is the best way to curb any sort of extremism within the country and of course that makes sense it's a very close-knit community in turkmenistan so they want to make sure that their citizens are literally on the exact same page when it comes to what the country is about now for fact.
8 Turkmenistan had their first president in the year 1991 like i mentioned and he ruled until 2006. but check this out during his time in power he became known for making a string of strange laws this is why turkmenistan is known as the land of unusual laws now what if i told you that some of those laws were or no operas allowed no gold teeth or you couldn't wear any spandex yeah i don't think you would believe me but that's actually true he based a lot of his laws around preserving turkmen culture and part of the reason behind so many of these laws was because he wanted full control he even changed the days of the week to match the names of his family members talk about obsession over control now many of these laws though have been changed since the new president has taken power and his name is a mouthful birdie muhammado but some of these laws still remain and some new ones have come up for example black cars are now forbidden in favor of white cars because white is a color that brings good luck moving on now to fact.
9 Turkmenistan has the sixth largest oil and gas reserve in the world as of january 2016 the country had an estimated proven natural gas reserve of 265 trillion cubic feet it is the sixth largest natural gas reserve holder in the entire world according to the oil and gas journal and was among the top 15 dry natural gas producers in 2015. in more recent years though the sale of their oil has dropped drastically and their economy has started to struggle as china and russia are buying less of it and the fact that i want to end you off.
10 If you're looking to travel and experience more of asia well i do have a little bit of not so exciting news for you turkmenistan is the most expensive country in central asia and one of the hardest countries to enter in central asia and one of the big reasons for this is because the country has an extensive visa process like i mentioned earlier in this episode in order to get a visa in turkmenistan you need to book a tour package and packages range in price upwards of two thousand dollars so visitors are not allowed to visit the country alone you need to have a tour guide with you at all times alright guys so that's all i have for you for this Article on 10 surprising facts about turkmenistan i really hope you guys learned something new about turkmenistan and feel just a little bit more educated on the country's fascinating history and very very unique one one of my favorite countries that we've done here on Countries Facts now.
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