Merv Archaeological Site

Bairam Ali, Turkmenistan
6th century B.C.--15th century A.D.
The historic urban center of the Merv oasis, strategically located in the Karakum desert, has been of major significance since the Iron Age. It consists of a series of cities, built side by side, and not subsequently developed. The great metropolises from the time of Alexander the Great formed the regional capital of a series of empires, the Seljuk empire being the largest. This featured an advanced urban design aesthetic and a cosmopolitan populace, and attracted scholars from across the Islamic world. Notable religious and secular monuments remain, including the twelfth-century Mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar and its wall paintings, other Seljuk and Timurid mausolea, military fortifications, and a remarkable range of mudbrick traditional buildings that include imposing palaces as well as icehouses. That such mudbrick structures survived through the centuries is truly unusual. Merv is Turkmenistan's principal cultural asset, but the nation, independent since 1992, has very limited funds for the preservation of these dangerously weakened remains. The building of the Karakum Canal in the 1950s, with the resulting agricultural exploitation, has raised the water table, the effects of which are proving devastating to the buildings.