Turkmenistan, which is north of Iran, has Ashgabat as its capital.
Ashgabat is located in southern Turkmenistan, near the border with Iran and at the northern foothills of the Kopet Dag mountain range. It sits between the mountains and the Karakum Desert, making it an important administrative and cultural center in Central Asia.
The city was founded in 1881 around an Ahal Teke settlement and became the capital of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic in 1924. It was known as Poltoratsk from 1919 to 1927 before its original name was restored. A devastating earthquake in 1948 destroyed much of Ashgabat, after which the city was rebuilt.
Modern Ashgabat is famous for monumental white-marble buildings, broad avenues, and grand government architecture, earning it the nickname "White City." The capital’s name is also transliterated as Aşgabat or Ashkhabad. Turkmenistan borders the Caspian Sea to the west and shares land borders with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Iran.