Ashgabat, << `ash` guh BAHT >> , is the capital of Turkmenistan. About 700,000 people live in the city. Ashgabat, also called Ashkhabad, lies in an oasis in the Karakum desert in southern Turkmenistan. An earthquake destroyed much of Ashgabat in 1948. The city was rebuilt with low buildings. The Karakum Canal supplies the city with water from the Amu Darya, a river more than 250 miles (400 kilometers) away in eastern Turkmenistan. Irrigation ditches called aryks line both sides of roads in Ashgabat. Economic activities in Ashgabat include carpet, textile, metal, and glass manufacturing.
Ashgabat was founded in 1881 as a military outpost for the Russian Empire. It was called Poltoratsk from 1919 to 1927. Already a regional center, Ashgabat became the capital of Turkmenistan in 1924, when Turkmenistan was made a republic of the Soviet Union. It remained the capital after Turkmenistan became an independent nation in 1991.
