Mary (Turkmenistan)
| Mary | |||
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| State : |
 Turkmenistan
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| Province : | Mary welaýaty | ||
| Coordinates : | 37 ° 36 ′ N , 61 ° 50 ′ E | ||
| Height : | 226 m. ü. M. | ||
| Residents : | 126,150 (2010) | ||
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Mary is a city in southeastern Turkmenistan with 126,150 inhabitants (as of 2010). It belongs to the Mary welaýaty administrative unit . Until 1930 it was also called, like the ruined city of Merw , about 30 km away .
geography
The city is located on an oasis in the Karakum , on the Murgab River . It is accessed by the Trans-Caspian Railway .
Industry
It is a center of Turkmen’s natural gas and cotton production, which are two of the country’s major export products. Mary was originally founded in 1884 as a Russian administrative center. The Mary region has the largest natural gas reserves in Turkmenistan. The Schatlyk natural gas field , one of the most important in the region, was only discovered here in 1968.
Military base
The military base Mary and especially its airport not far from the Iranian and Afghan borders is considered to be one of the most strategically important in Central Asia and was also the largest at the beginning of the decade; the United States is said to have tried to use it several times, but so far in vain. Mary had already been one of the largest bases in the Soviet Army .
Attractions
Hajji Gurbanguly Mosque
Pokrovskaya Church
sons and daughters of the town
- Eduard Assadow (1923-2004), Russian poet
- Jelena Bonner (1923–2011), Russian politician, pediatrician, dissident and human rights activist and Andrei Sakharov's second wife
- Aýgül Täjiýewa (1944–2009), Turkmen politician and dissident
- Hydyr Saparlyýew (* 1958), Turkmen politician
Culture
With the Mary Museum, there is an important museum in the city that provides information on local and national history using around 40,000 exhibits.
Town twinning
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Is Washington exploring a base deal with Turkmenistan? ( Memento of the original from October 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Eurasianet, August 31, 2005)
