Another early stop touring Ashgabat was the Arch of Neutrality or Neutrality Monument. Turkmenistan adopted an official policy of neutrality, as a neutral country, so this monument celebrates their neutrality. The monument was built in 1998. It’s marble covered, 246 feet high, and shaped like a rocket. It’s also topped with a gold statue of the president at that time, Saparmurat Niyazov. His statue rotated throughout the day so that his face was always basking in the sun.

You can see the arch in the first photo. You may also notice that soldiers stand at attention at the base of the monument. We, however, were the only people at the monument. We were well guarded.

Standing near the main area of the monument and looking off to either side, you can see extensive landscaping with lawns, trees, extensive water features, walkways, benches, lighting for night, and more. You can see this in the second and third photos. As you see the water feature in the third photo, there must have been dozens just like this one. The landscaping area was laid out like a grid with repeating patterns of walkways, fountains, trees and so forth.

The fourth photo is just another arch photo but from off to one side between the arch and the intricate landscaping. I thought it interesting that their arch of neutrality was shaped like a rocket.

In the last photo, you can see our bus on the left side. Not only were we the only people at the arch, we seemed to be the only people in that entire part of Ashgabat.