Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan is the last frontier, until recently the very outpost of the old Soviet Empire. The country is mostly covered by the large, empty and very hot Kara Kum or Black Sands desert, which for centuries has been Turkmenistan’s best defensive weapon, successfully repelling outsiders, adventurers and armies.

The country is home to about 4 and a half million Turkomen, who trace their descent from nomadic tribes living in the Altai Mountains above Mongolia in the 5th century AD. By the 15th century the Turkomen had settled in the area that is now Turkmenistan.

A warm and friendly people, some of the most appealing in Central Asia, the Turkomen dress in their traditional clothes with huge sheepskin hats, long coats and boots and true to their nomadic traditions are excellent horsemen. Turkmenistan is known for its wonderful Akhal Teke horses, the ancestor of the Arabian racehorse.

The country is also famous for its carpets, known as Bukhara carpets, because for centuries they were traded in Bukhara in Uzbekistan.

A visit to Turkmenistan will be a journey into a rich and colourful past, still totally untouched by tourism where no one is considered a stranger but a friend that has not yet been met.