One of our first stops touring Ashgabat was the Halk Hakydasy Memorial Complex or “People’s Memory”. It’s located in the southwest part of Ashgabat. The complex memorializes three different things: the people killed in the 1948 Ashgabat Earthquake, World War II, and the heroes of the motherland for other Turkmen battles (if I understood everything correctly). There is also many other things going on here and it was all a bit overwhelming. It has a museum but the museum was closed. I’ll point out some other things with my photos.

This complex was completed in October 2014 but the main monuments were previously located in central Ashgabat, so they were relocated to this location. The complex is huge. It occupies 160 acres and could probably hold well over a million people. We, however, were the only people here, along with a few guards and gardeners. We could take all the photos we wanted here and at the various monuments we visited.

The first photo is from where we entered this complex. Our bus dropped us off near this entrance. The five red marble towers on the right side in the photo are the World War II monument or The Great Patriotic War, 1941 – 1945. On the left, you can see just a portion of a curved marble wall with the history of Turkmenistan on it. For perspective, I believe that the marble towers are over 88 feet tall.

Turning to the right from the first photo, I took this photo of the earthquake monument. It’s a mighty bull whose horns are chopping into the earth. I believe that this is based on an ancient legend. My guess is that since they have had large recorded earthquakes here dating back to before Christ, it was a good legend to explain the quakes.

I’m looking straight ahead in the third photo, between the WW II monument and the earthquake monument – to the third monument here. This, I believe, is the monument to mothers and the heroes of the motherland of other Turkmen battles. You can also see some more of the curved red marble wall with more history of Turkmenistan on it. The fourth photo is a close-up of this third monument. It had an eternal flame as part of the monument.

The last photo is from the third monument, looking back at the other two. This helps you see the width of the main area of the monument, but not the length. I would say that this photo only shows about half the length of the main platform. Vicky is walking on the left and any other people here are either part of our group or guards.