Read Around the World July 2023 – Turkmenistan

Map link

July and the world reading trip took us to Turkmenistan.

Fun facts from this website:

• Turkmenistan is one of the least-visited countries in the world
• Turkmenistan is 70% desert
• One of the biggest draws for travellers in Turkmenistan, the Darvaza gas crater, burns continually in the middle of the desert. Also known as the “gate of hell,” the gas crater really does lend the feeling of staring into hell, particularly at night when its red flames flare up against the blackness of the desert night.
• Kunya-Urgench, a Silk Road City on the border with Uzbekistan and also a UNESCO site, was a site of culture, learning and prominence during the 11th and 12th centuries. It was once the 2nd largest city in the Samanid Empire and featured a distinct architectural style which can still be found in places like Iran and Afghanistan today
• Turkmen people are descended from the nomadic Oghuz tribes that moved into this region in the 7th century. Even today, Turkmen people still associate themselves with five main nomadic tribes. One of the signs of this nomadic tradition and culture is the telpek, a large sheepskin hat, worn by men.
• The capital city Ashgabat shines in the hot desert sun thanks to being built primarily in white marble. In fact, so much marble was consumed in the construction of the city, the Guinness Book of World Records has awarded Ashgabat the prize of having the highest density of marble buildings in the world.

I chose to visit Turkmenistan via Stans by Me by Ged Gillmore. This is a travel memoir based on the authors visit to the 5 Stans in Central Asia. Unfortunately I was unable to find a book in English by a Turkmenistan author or a book set solely in Turkmenistan however Stans by Me was a fun whistle-stop tour through the Stans with wry observations about the native people, the places and the others tourists in the group. The descriptions of the landscape, the mosques and the architecture really bought the different countries alive for me and I really regret that visiting them is probably something I will never be able to do.

Other readers visited in the following ways:

Currey from Litsy: Joe and Azat by Jesse Lonergan a graphic nothing rated So-So.

Did you join us on this trip? Let us know what you read.

Next up the Democratic Republic of Congo share your reading plans.