In 1999 the State Historical and Cultural Park of Ancient Merv became Turkmenistan’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site as it is the oldest and best-preserved of the oasis-cities along Central Asia’s Silk Road.
After a 6.30am flight from the capital Ashgabat, our sightseeing began early, and on arrival, we couldn’t resist stopping to photograph a group of camels being herded by young boys. Merv is a huge site, and a car is essential to get around the various points of interest.
We began at the Great Kyz Kala, or fort, with its square-shaped, mud-brick walls which had the distinctive feature of vertically arranged corrugations. A long path took us into the building and down a flight of steps where our guide regaled us with the history of Merv beginning in the 3rd millennium BC. Needless to say, it was long and complex, especially bearing in mind it had gone through various incarnations, and sadly names and dates were instantly forgotten.
At the beautifully restored mausoleums of two Askhabs, or standard bearers of the Prophet Mohammed, we could compare turquoise and blue tiles both from the 15th century and the current day. This was obviously a significant holy place as we met a lady from our flight who had come to pay pilgrimage along with her family.
We stopped at the remains of a wall where the thickness was created by the Greeks, the Parthians, and finally the Persians Sassanians adding to it.
High on a sandy hill was a Buddhist stupor and monastery and we were given the option of climbing the significantly steep slope. Bearing in mind temperatures were around 30 degrees at 9am, we naturally decided against it.
The Mausoleum of Yusuf Hamadani had been heavily restored and was said to be the holiest part with a pilgrim site, mausoleum, and a mosque with a sadaqah or charity kitchen, which unlike the one we’d seen outside Ashgabat, was not cooking on the day of our visit.
The Mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar was a beautiful cube shaped monument restored with the help of Turkey. Once inside we could see a small window in the dome, as according to legend the king married with the promise that he wouldn’t touch his wife’s waist, watch her walk or comb her hair. As he had no willpower, she transformed into a dove, and he created the window in the hope that his dove-wife would fly back through it. This was the only place where we had to pay to use our cameras inside where the partial restoration of the murals allowed us to get an insight into how it had looked.
Our final stop was at the Mausoleum of Mohammed Ibn Zeid were a tree in front bore ribbons tied on by pilgrims in the hope their prayers would be answered. Inside the brick dome was beautiful and we were shown the mihrab or niche which indicates Mecca, which is said to be unusual for a mausoleum.
This was an interesting site, but it was hard to imagine that in its heyday Merv, then known as Marv-i-shah-Jahan, was of equal importance to Damascus, Baghdad and Cairo.
