We are still at the Monument to Independence. After entering the monument (prior post), we then walked to this section. This is another entry point to the independence monument and I believe that this is the main entrance. I’m not sure why we didn’t enter from here but it didn’t matter.

In this photo, the main monument is behind me and we are walking down to what I believe is the main entrance point to the monument. You can see more of central Ashgabat in the background.

I suspect that this is the main entrance because from this entrance, you first see a golden statue of Turkmenbashi (Saparmurat Niyazov), their first President. You can see the independence monument behind it on the right.

This is just a close-up of one of the five-headed eagles which were all over this monument. Again, I believe that the five heads are for Turkmenistan’s five Provinces. The eagle is standing on a two-headed snake but I can’t remember the significance of the snake.

This was one of the garden crews that we saw at this monument. The temperature was over 100 degrees but as you can see, they covered up to avoid the sun. This was true for both men and women workers. They are hand weeding.

This is the street in front of the monument where we parked our bus. Not a lot of traffic.