Turkmenistan · 5 days between Khiva and Bukhara; 2 to 3 days for Darvaza alone

Turkmenistan

A gas crater still burning in the Karakum, the minaret of Kunya-Urgench across the border from Khiva, ancient Merv, and Ashgabat in white marble.

Plan a trip: Turkmenistan
The Darvaza gas crater at dusk in the Karakum desert: flames glow across the floor of the vast pit as a lone visitor watches from near the rim
Tormod Sandtorv, CC BY-SA 2.0

Why go

Why Turkmenistan

Few travellers make it to Turkmenistan, and it repays the effort. Kunya-Urgench, across the border from Khiva, was the capital of Khorezm before Khiva was. Merv, in the south, is the oldest and best-preserved of the Silk Road oasis cities in Central Asia. Between them, in the Karakum desert, a gas crater has been burning for around half a century. The fire is far smaller now than in older photographs, but after dark it still glows.

Ashgabat is something else again: a capital faced in white marble, with gilded domes, wide avenues and the Parthian fortress of Nisa on its edge. The usual route crosses from Khiva at Dashoguz, spends a night by the crater and leaves through Farap for Bukhara, so Turkmenistan fits between the Uzbek cities without a flight.

See and do

What to see

The Darvaza crater
A burning crater 60 to 70 metres across in the Karakum, best after dark, with a night in a yurt camp nearby.
Kunya-Urgench
The 60-metre Kutlug-Timur minaret and the tiled dome of Turabek-Khanum, in the old capital of Khorezm.
Ancient Merv
The Mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar and the mud-brick walls of the Kyz Kala, near Mary.
Ashgabat
A capital faced in white marble, with gilded domes and grand monuments.
Nisa
A Parthian fortress city on the edge of Ashgabat, a UNESCO site like Merv and Kunya-Urgench.
Gonur Depe
A Bronze Age city in the desert north of Mary, reached by 4x4.

In pictures

The Kutlug-Timur minaret in Kunya-Urgench: a tapering brick tower ringed with patterned bands and Kufic inscriptions, rising into a streaky blue sky
John Pavelka, CC BY 2.0
Sultan Sanjar's mausoleum at ancient Merv: a banded brick dome above tiers of arched galleries crowns the square brick tomb, with a metal stair tower on one wall, among excavated ruins under a blue sky
P. Hughes, CC BY 4.0
Old Nisa's Parthian fortress near Ashgabat: weathered mud-brick walls and excavated rooms spread below the green ridges of the Kopet Dag
Carole Raddato, CC BY-SA 2.0

Practical

When and how

How long
5 days between Khiva and Bukhara; 2 to 3 days for Darvaza alone
Best time
April to May and September to October. Summer days in the desert pass 40°C, and winter nights at Darvaza fall below freezing.
Getting there
By road from Khiva through the Shavat–Dashoguz border, an hour's drive and about two hours to cross; out through Farap towards Bukhara. Almost every passport needs a visa, through a letter of invitation or, since October 2026, an e-visa. We arrange it, along with the guide a tourist visa requires.

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Trips that go to Turkmenistan

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