Ashgabat

Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, is one of the most surreal and extraordinary cities on earth, a gleaming, immaculate metropolis rebuilt in lavish white marble and gold rising from the edge of the Karakum desert. Holding the world record for the highest concentration of white-marble buildings, its broad, spotless boulevards are lined with grandiose palaces, ministries, fountains and monuments, from the towering Neutrality Arch topped by a formerly rotating golden statue to giant gilded emblems. Eerily clean, orderly and often empty, it remains a genuinely astonishing sight.

The main sights

• The white-marble city - the gleaming marble boulevards and palaces.
• The Neutrality Monument - the towering arch and golden statue.
• The gilded monuments - the grandiose statues and emblems.
• The Independence Park - the vast ceremonial monuments.

When to go

Spring, April to May, and autumn, September to October, for the mildest weather, as the desert summers are fiercely hot; the marble city gleams under the sun and its monuments are floodlit at night. It is usually seen at the start or end of a guided tour of the country.

Before you go

Ashgabat is strange and often unsettling: spotlessly clean and eerily empty, and visits are usually made on guided tours. It can feel more showpiece than living city. As a genuinely jaw-dropping, otherworldly spectacle of marble and gold, though, nowhere else looks like it.

Nearby

The ancient ruins of Nisa and the Karakum desert are close by.