After managing to get past customs (and politely declining to bring in a box of cigarettes for a local) I met up with Artem of Travel Notoria and we were soon off for my tour of Ashgabat. I had been corresponding by email with Artem quite a bit after all the visa troubles (unless you can score a transit visa, all tourists must book a tour to get a visit visa), so was great to finally meet him in person.


First stop of the day was to get some local currency, Turkmenistan manat, at about ~3.5 to the US dollar.


We then drove out of Ashgabat to the village of Gypjak to see the Türkmenbaşy Ruhy Mosque.


The mosque opened on October 22, 2004 and is purportedly the largest mosque in Central Asia. The mosque is also very unusual in that as well as scripture from the holy Quran, it also features words from the Ruhnama, a spiritual book written by Turkmenistan's former President, Saparmurat Niyazov. Words from the Ruhnama can be seen on the minarets below, which are 91 metres high, to correspond with the year of independence of Turkmenistan (1991).


And the magnificant interior. Above the main door is the text, "The Ruhnama is a holy book and the Quran is the word of Allah". The mosque has understandably upset many Muslims that the Ruhnama is placed as the Quran's equal, and perhaps why although the mosque can hold up to 10,000 worshippers, it usually sits empty.


The mosque was constructed by the French company Bouygues. Rumor has it that the mosque would be built by a Turkish company, but once they found out the sacrilegious nature of the mosque, they quickly bailed, leaving the French construction company to pick up the 100 million dollar check. The very close (and corrupt) relationship between the French company and the Turkmenistan government was detailed in US Embassy cables released by Wikileaks.