Köneürgench is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in northern Turkmenistan, the ancient capital of the Khorezmian Empire, abandoned in the 1700s and largely untouched since. The monuments here, built between the 11th and 16th centuries, sit in open scrubland with a quietness that feels less like preservation and more like the place simply stopped. Getting to the main site involved a U-turn and a stretch of driving the wrong way down the road, which felt appropriate for somewhere this remote.
Sights & Culture
Turabeg Khanym Mausoleum
One of the finest surviving examples of Mongol-era architecture in Central Asia. The interior dome is the thing, an intricate geometric pattern in tilework that functions as a calendar, with the divisions corresponding to the days, months, and weeks of the year. It was built for Turabeg Khanym, a Khorezmian princess, in the 14th century. The scale and the precision of it are difficult to account for given when and where it was made.
Gold statue on the approach
A gold statue visible on the approach to the complex — hard to miss against the scrub. I didn’t note whose likeness it was or when it went up; worth stopping for the odd contrast if you have a moment before the main monuments.
Restaurants & Bars
Lunch stop
Four courses and a local cola that was better than expected. One of the better lunches of the Turkmenistan leg, which the surroundings, a UNESCO site, open desert, a road briefly driven the wrong way, made more memorable than it might otherwise have been.