Mary

Mary

Mary, formerly known as Merv, Meru and Alexandria Margiana, is a city on the banks of the Murgab River in an oasis of the Karakum Desert. Mary is the capital of the region, near which are the ruins of the ancient city of Merv. The area around Mary was developed by the Soviet Union into a center of cotton production through large-scale irrigation. Then in 1968, huge reserves of natural gas were discovered in the Shatlyk Gas Field, 20 kilometers west of the city. On 18 May 1992, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the declaration of Turkmen independence, Mary became the center of the province of Mary. One of Mary's notable buildings is the Pokrovskaya Church, which is a Russian Orthodox Church. It was built around 1900 by Russian forces when they occupied the city of Mary in 1884, and was guarded by a military garrison against repeated attacks by British forces and Afghan armies. Another notable building is the Gurbanguly Hajji Mosque. Completed in 2009, during the reign of Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, it is one of the most outstanding sights of the city of Mary with its four minarets. The white marble mosque with its golden domes and four slender minarets was built in the best traditions of Turkmen architecture. The main dome, decorated with mosaic and crowned with a golden crescent, is 24 meters. The height of each minaret is 63 meters. The prayer hall is designed to accommodate 2,500 people at a time, with the upper level reserved for women. Eight columns support the dome, which has a span of 24 meters.