Balkan Province

Balkan Province is the western region of Turkmenistan, spanning the western Karakum and much of the Caspian Basin.

Cities

The port in Turkmenbashi

• 1 Balkanabat — an oil and gas center at the foot of the Balkan Daglary mountains.
• 2 Bereket — (formerly Gazandzhyk) a railway town.
• 3 Esenguly — a small remote at the southwest of the region on the Caspian Sea.
• 4 Garabogaz — a town at the narrow strait separating the gigantic Garabogaz Lagoon from the Caspian Sea.
• 5 Gyzyletrek — a small border town on a rarely traveled road to Gorgan, Iran.
• 6 Gumdag — small railway town.
• 7 Serdar — a medium-sized city northwest of Ashgabat.
• 8 Turkmenbashi — Turkmenistan's port on the Caspian, with a few beach hotels.

Other destinations

• Dakhistan — the ruins of an impossibly remote Silk Road city, home to Shir-Kabir mausoleum.

Understand

The province, which occupies the westernmost third of Turkmenistan adjacent to the Caspian Sea, was converted from an oblast following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Its population of roughly half a million includes both settled and nomadic populations. Although only isolated pockets of the province's land are arable, it contributes to the country's economy due to its petroleum reserves, with over 90% of the country's production coming from the Balkan Province.

The island of Ogurja Ada, a former leper colony and sand spit in the Caspian Sea off the west coast of the mainland, is also a part of Balkan Province.

Get in

The M37 highway is a highway connecting the Turkmenbashi International Seaport from Ashgabat, Mary, Türkmenabat and the Uzbek border. The P-15, P-16, P-17, P-18, and P-20 highways also connect major population centres.

The Trans-Caspian Railway also connects Turkmenbashi and from Ashgabat, Mary, Turkmenabat and Uzbekistan.

There is a passenger and car ferry service from Baku to Turkmenbashi.

The main airport is Turkmenbashi International Airport (KRW  ^IATA), which has flights from Ashgabat and Daşoguz within Turkmenistan. It also receives international flights from Minsk, Moscow and Istanbul.