The Asian capital home to the 95-meter Arch of Neutrality is Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
The monument was commissioned by Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmenistan’s first post-Soviet president, and completed in 1998. Its three-legged design earned it the local nickname “the Tripod.” The structure originally stood in central Ashgabat and was topped by a gold-plated statue of Niyazov that rotated toward the sun.
In January 2010, Niyazov’s successor, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, ordered the monument dismantled and moved away from the city center. It was reassembled in Ashgabat’s southern outskirts and reopened in 2011. The rebuilt version is 95 meters tall; the original arch was about 75 meters high, making the height detail an easy source of confusion.
The monument commemorates Turkmenistan’s officially recognized permanent neutrality. The United Nations recognized that status in 1995, and neutrality remains a central theme in the country’s public symbolism and foreign policy.