Apart from world known heritage sights and a diverse cultural treasure, Turkmenistan is widely known for many other things. Here are 18 most lingering & rarely known facts about Turkmenistan you will love to read.
1. Written Turkmen has gone through a vast number of different alphabets. Prior to 1929, Turkmen was written in the Arabic script. Between 1929 and 1938, a Latin alphabet was used. Then, from 1938 through 1991, the Cyrillic alphabet became the official writing system. In 1991, a new Latinate alphabet was introduced, but it has been slow to catch on.
Turkmen Language | img- fiu.edu
2. Roughly 80% of Turkmenistan is covered by the Karakum (Black Sands) Desert.
Karakum Desert Turkmenistan | img- goista.com
3. Turkmenistan has four distinct seasons & it faces two extremely opposite atmospheric conditions, in summer its temperature might go beyond 50 degree Celsius, while in Winter it might get less than zero resulting into snowfall.
Winter In Turkmenistan | img- tours42plus.com
4. Almost 90% of workers in Turkmenistan are employed by government.
Turkmenistan Women Cooking at Government Festival | img- rferl.org
5. Turkmenistan is 4th biggest reserve of natural gas in the world.
Huge Gas Processing Units In Turkmenistan | img- themanufacturer.com
6. Despite of immense deposits of natural gas, 60% of Turkmenistan people (Turkmens) lived below the poverty line in 2004
Turkmenistan Citizen Living Below Poverty Line | img- activehistory.co.uk
7. If we consider people over 15 who can read and write literate, Turkmenistan has 99.6% literacy.
Young Students At A Turkmen Institute | img- centralasiaonline.com
8. Turkmenistan exports 41.1 billion Cubic meters of gas every year, while the proven reserve of gas beneath the Turkmenistan territory is more than 17.5 trillion cubic meters.
Natural Gas Pipelines At Turkmenistan | img- ria.ru
9. There are 26 public airports in Turkmenistan, good enough for country with only 5 million residents.
Turkmenbashi Airport | img- anna.aero
10. Turkmenistan is world widely famous for its ethnic style of carpets & there is even a carpet museum with more than 1,000 different carpets from 18th & 19th century & more from 20th century.
Inside Turkmenistan’s Carpet Museum | img- rugrabbit.net
11. A group of people made a 313 square meter carpet for the Turkmen carpet museum which is recognized as the largest hand-woven carpet in the world in Guinness book of world records.
World’s Larget Hand-woven Carpet At Turkmenistan’s Carpet Museum | img- turkmenelitourism.com
12. Turkmenistan is 6th most corrupted out of 174 worldwide countries as per a survey.
Turkmenistan Minister During A Public Appearance | img- rferl.org
13. Average population density of Turkmenistan is merely 10 person/km.
Population Density In & Around Turkmenistan | img- grida.no
14. There are only 80,400 people in Turkmenistan using Internet (~ 1.59% of its population) which puts Turkmenistan in bottom 10th percentile among all countries in the world.
A Cyber Cafe In Turkmenistan | img- rferl.org
15. There is a 133 meter tall Turkmen flagpole amidst Ashgabat, which puts it among world’s tallest flags.
World’s Tallest Flag Pole In Ashgabat, Turkmenistan | img-wikimapia.org
16. Turkmenistan is world’s 9th largest cotton-producer country.
Cotton Farms In Turkmenistan | img- deltafarmpress.com
17. If you loved dinosaurs, you can find real dinosaur foot prints at Kugitang Nature Reserve which is one among most pristine among Turkmenistan’s natural reserves.
Huge Dinosaur Footprints At Dinosaurs Track Koytendag, Turkmenistan | img- aaronsarea.com
18. There is more than 70 feet wide burning natural gas crater in Turkmenistan widely known as Darwaja which contains bubbling gas active since more than 40 years. This huge gas crater was accidentally found by the drillers from Soviet Union state government of Turkmenistan who burnt the fire in the crater in hope of clearing the gas out of it however, it didn’t work and the gas is continuously burning since than.
Door To Hell (Darwaja), Turkmenistan | img- flickr.com
References- findthebest.com | about.com | nationalgeographic.com
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