Earthquake memorials

Two moving monuments lie in this part of town, marking the fields which became cemeteries following the 1948 earthquake. To reach the first, drive eastwards along Magtymguly Shayoly as far as the roundabout centred on an abstract concrete fountain, close to the Asia Planet amusement park. On the north side of the road here is an earthquake memorial depicting an open-sided cube, within which a mother and father are being tossed around by the tremor. Between them, though, their child stands proudly defiant, his arms outstretched above his head. The building across the road, which once housed the Chinese Embassy, has an interesting Soviet-era frieze on its end wall, depicting two enthusiastic youngsters running with arms aloft.

Another graveyard of victims of the earthquake is reached by driving eastwards along Atamurat Niyazov Shayoly from the intersection with Saparmurat Turkmenbashy Shayoly. A large field amidst blocks of Soviet housing is covered with the mostly unmarked mounds of 1948 burials. On the eastern side of the field is a simple but effective memorial featuring a seated woman, her head concealed in her grief, beneath an arch faced with red marble.