'''Turkmenbashi''', formerly known as Krasnovodsk, is in Turkmenistan.

Understand

In 1717, Russian Prince Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky landed and established a secret fortified settlement on this location, where the dry bed of a former mouth of the Amu-Darya River once emptied into the Caspian Sea. His intent was to march an army up this dry riverbed and conquer the Khanate of Khiva. The expedition failed, and the Russians abandoned the settlement for over 150 years.

In 1869, the Russians made a second and latest attempt. They named their fort Krasnovodsk (_K___p___~___r___t___{), which is the Russian version of the original name, Kyzyl-Su (Red Water). Krasnovodsk was Imperial Russia's base of operations against Khiva and Bukhara, and the nomadic Turkmen tribes. It fell to the Red Army in February, 1920.

In 1993 Krasnovodsk was renamed by president-for-life Saparmurat Niyazov, after his self-proclaimed title Turkmenba?y ("Leader of all Turkmen"). Niyazov's successor Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow pledged to invest 1 billion dollars into the project slated to turn Turkmenba?y into a major tourist resort "with dozens of hotels, spas, seaside restaurants and glimmering spaceship-like skyscrapers".

Get in

By plane

Turkmenbashi is connected by Turkmenistan Airlines flights to Ashgabat, capital of Turkmenistan.

By train

Turkmenbashi is the western extent of the Trans-Caspian Railway.

By car

By bus

By boat

There are boats across the Caspian Sea to Baku, Azerbaijan.

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