Not to miss

Ashghabat

This small city nestled beneath the Kopet Dag, and just a few miles from Iran, has become a political statement built to the peculiar tastes of President Niyazov.

Once a marginalised, largely forgotten capital of a Soviet desert republic that few people had ever heard of, let alone visited, Ashgabat ('the city of love' or Ashkabad in Arabic) has undergone a dramatic transformation of the most unusual kind since independence.

Originally developed by the Russians in the late 19th century, Ashgabat became a prosperous, largely Russian frontier town on the Trans-Caspian railway. However, at 1am on 6 October 1948, the city vanished in less than a minute, levelled as it was by an earthquake that measured nine on the Richter scale. 110,000 people died and for five years the area was closed to outsiders while bodies were recovered and the wreckage cleared.

Consequently there are no great camera-friendly monuments, no shady tree-houses from which to watch the world go by, and travellers have to work hard to make a stay worthwhile. The highlight of the city is definitely the huge Sunday Tolkuchka bazaar which attracts a colourful Cecil B de Mille cast of thousands.

Merv

Once one of Central Asia's greatest cities, Merv is an archaeologist's dream and has moved travel writers to muse for pages on the life and death of civilisations, but may leave the casual visitor a bit nonplussed. The area wears the remains of no less than five walled cities from different periods.

To the untrained-eye Merv is a lumpen landscape scarred with ditches and channels, grazed by camels and dotted every now and then with an earthwork mound or a battered sandy-brick structure. It retains a certain melancholic charm, and Sultan Sanjar's mausoleum is impressive in size and solidity.

Merv's origins are shrouded in conjecture and romance - one legend suggests it was founded by Zoroaster - but this oasis settlement was definitely a Silk Road staging post and reached its greatest heights in the 11th and 12th centuries when the Seljuqs made it their capital. Merv is a short drive east of Mary, seven hours east of Ashghabat by train.

Kugitang Nature Reserve

Kugitang is the most impressive and pristine of Turkmenistan's nature reserves. Set up in 1986 to protect the Kugitang Mountain Range, its unique ecosystem and in particular the rare markhor mountain goat, it includes the nation's highest peak, several huge canyons, rich forests, mountain streams, caves and the unique Dinosaur Plateau.

Dinosaur Plateau is presumed to be the bottom of a lake that dried up, leaving dinosaur prints baking in the sun, after which a volcanic eruption sealed them in lava. Visiting the Karlyuk Caves is equally impressive. You'll need to arrange a special permit from a travel agency in order to visit here.

Tolkuchka Bazaar

With its teeming cast of colourful thousands, this bazaar is Central Asia, Cecil B. De Mille-style. It sprawls across acres of desert on the outskirts of town, with corrals of camels and goats, avenues of red-clothed women squatting before silver jewellery, and countless trucks from which vendors hawk everything from pistachios to car parts. Expect to haggle.

Above all, Tolkuchka is the place for carpets. Predominantly deep red, hundreds are laid out in a large sandy compound or draped over racks and walls.

Karakum Desert

In the heart of Central Asia's hottest desert, Turkmen villages such as Jerbent get by on rural agriculture, livestock breeding and pluck. Here you can see you can see nomadic people, experience their customs, see handicrafts, watch carpet making and taste their food while staying in an ak oi (Turkmen yurt) or chaikhana. It's the real, traditional Turkmen experience.

At the heart of the desert lie the Darvaza Gas Craters, one of Turkmenistan's most unusual sights. Remnants of the Soviet-era, one of the craters has been set alight and blazes with an incredible strength that's visible from miles away. There are acres of free camping sites nearby and the fire crater is best seen at night, when it also becomes an attraction for huge and largely harmless spiders that run into the fire for reasons best known to themselves. This is a serious off-road ride in the middle of the night and drivers frequently get lost or get stuck in the dunes. The best way to do the trip is to travel with an experienced driver from Ashgabat.