Turkmenistan (officially Türkmenistan), a country of west central Asia, borders Iran to the south and Kazakhstan to the north. With a large area and a population of about 6 million it is the most sparsely populated of the central Asian countries. 80% of its area is occupied by the Karakum Desert. However it also has a coastline facing the southeastern quadrant of the Caspian Sea. The Caspian is landlocked, but it has a busy international trade. Turkmenistan was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union, becoming independent when the Union collapsed in 1991. The only Turkmen port of any size is Türkmenbaşy (or Turkmenbashi, known as Krasnovodsk under Russian and Soviet rule). Accessible by air and also by ferry from Bakı (Baku) in Azerbaijan, Türkmenbaşy is the country's main point of contact with Europe. The entire Caspian coastline is included in Balkan Province, the westernmost of the five provinces into which Turkmenistan is divided. Since the fall of the Soviet Union the Turkmen language is written in a modified Latin script using an alphabet similar to that of Turkish. Unlike Turkish, there is no undotted letter i in Turkmen. The Turkmen word for a lighthouse, maýak, is adopted from Russian. Ada is the word for an island, ýarym ada is a peninsula, burun is a cape, and duralga is a harbor. In Turkmen the Caspian Sea is called Hazar deňzi. Aids to navigation in the country are presumably maintained by the State Service for Maritime and River Transport. Former Russian names for the lighthouses are shown in curly brackets {}. Since lighthouses on the Caspian are not included in international light lists not much is known about them. Further information, especially photos, would be welcome. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights.
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![]() Range Front Light, Türkmenbaşy unattributed Wikimapia photo |
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Information available on lost lighthouses: Notable faux lighthouses: |
Adjoining pages: North: Kazakhstan | West: Northern Iran
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Posted April 28, 2008. Checked and revised July 23, 2024. Lighthouses: 20. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.