Today’s country is one of the weirdest destinations we’ve visited in a while. Turkmenistan is a similar size to Spain, but that’s pretty much where any similarity ends.
Since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 Turkmenistan has been ruled by a succession of larger-than-life dictators. The first Saparmurat Niyazov was known for littering the entire country with golden statues and for his little pink and green book. His book entitled Ruhnama was a state propaganda tool and every Turkmen resident was forced to study it, even for driving tests.
The current dictator of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, also has a penchant for large golden statues. However, what he’s most known for is performing donuts around a burning crater named “Gateway to Hell” in order to quell rumours of his demise. No, I’m not making this up.
The Gateway to Hell, or the Darvaza gas crater is a huge crater in the Karakum Desert permanently burning natural gas. It’s the consequence of failed Soviet oil drilling attempts in the 1970s. To this day it burns and has become a weird tourist attraction.
Anyway, I really don’t have enough time to do Turkmenistan justice this evening, I recommend watching VisualPolitik’s take on Turkmenistan:
I'm writing about every country in the world. One a day for 195 days. Learn more