The corridor ends in an oval niche resembling an altar. Deep recesses in the walls, designed to hold lamps, highlight the absence of natural light in these ascetic cells. The ventilation system for these austere living quarters remains a mystery. Despite these challenges, the caves do have undeniable advantages: they remain cool during the scorching summer months and retain heat from fires during the winter.
A few years ago, a section of the steep slope on the right bank of the Murghab River, near the villages of Dashkópri and Erden, collapsed due to water erosion, revealing the entrances to another previously unknown cave city. After much effort, employees from the Ancient Merv State Historical and Cultural Reserve, responsible for this territory, managed to access the site. What they discovered astonished even these seasoned experts.
The walls of the Dashkópri complex were adorned with ornate reliefs that skillfully imitated classical architectural forms. Pilasters and arches were meticulously crafted by a skilled stonemason with a keen sense of proportion and harmony. Unlike the stark, ascetic interiors of Ekegovak, this site appears to have been designed as a more ceremonial space, possibly for important gatherings or rituals.
The discovery of these cave settlements dates back 125 years, when Russian mining engineer Afanasy Konshin first documented them. He was followed by geologist, traveler, and writer, Academician Vladimir Obruchev, who provided the first scientific description of the Karabil Highlands and its artificial caves in his 1890 book The Trans-Caspian Lowland.
Throughout the 20th century, numerous specialists, including geologists, geographers, and archaeologists, visited the site. However, the first detailed account of these cave complexes was provided in the 1950s by architect Galina Pugachenkova. She dated these unusual structures to the 10th and 11th centuries, based on artifacts found on the cave floors, which may reflect later use of the caves.
What lies beneath the layers of debris, untouched by archaeologists, remains unknown. Without further excavations, these questions remain unanswered, though reasonable hypotheses have been proposed.
One such theory was presented a quarter-century ago by architectural historian Sergey Khmelnitsky, who suggested that similar artificial shelters in Central Asia often served as monasteries, typically Buddhist but occasionally Christian. This pattern is observed at other sites, such as Yungang and Tianlongshan in Western China, Bamiyan in Afghanistan, Kara-tepe near Termez in southern Uzbekistan, and Aivaj in Tajikistan. The geometric regularity and precise angles of Ekegovak leave little doubt that experienced craftsmen designed it, and that it was originally intended as a monastic dwelling, as hinted by the niche at the end of the corridor.
The neighboring complex of Dortgovak also deviates from the typical underground structure. If these theories hold true, the Karabil caves could be much older than previously thought, possibly dating back to the 2nd to 4th centuries, like Kara-tepe, or even earlier. The construction of such cave dwellings along the Murghab River was evidently widespread during the Middle Ages. Evidence of this includes not only the Tagtabazar caves but also those in Dashkópri, as well as a medieval manuscript mentioning a settlement called Asrab. This village, located 12 farsakhs from Merv-erud (modern Maruchak on the Turkmen-Afghan border near Tagtabazar), was described by the 10th-century Arab geographer Qudama ibn Ja’far as «a small village whose dwellings are caves in the mountains.»
As with many little-studied monuments, the Karabil caves present more questions than answers, leaving room for further exploration and discovery.
