Serhetabat
Serhetabat
Serhetabat şäheri | |
|---|---|
City | |
 Southern Cross of the Russian Empire in Serhetabat | |
  Serhetabat Location in Turkmenistan | |
| Coordinates: 35°16′31″N 62°19′28″E / 35.27528°N 62.32444°E | |
| Country |  Turkmenistan |
| Province | Mary Province |
| District | Tagtabazar District |
| Elevation | 747 m (2,451 ft) |
| Population (2022 official census) | |
• Total | 16,038 |
| Time zone | UTC+05:00 (TMT) |
Serhetabat (Turkmen pronunciation: [seɾˌhetɑˈbɑːt]), formerly known as Guşgy or Kushka (Russian: Кушка), is a city in Tagtabazar District, Mary Province,Turkmenistan.[2] Serhetabat lies in the valley of the Guşgy River, bordering Afghanistan. The city mirrors Torghundi, Afghanistan, with which it is connected by a road and a 1,520 mm (4 ft 11+27⁄32 in) gauge railway. In 2022, it had a population of 16,038 people.[3]
Etymology
[edit]The name of the city is a Turkmen borrowing from Persian سرحدآباد, consisting of two words: سرحد (sarhadd) meaning "border" and آباد (ābād) meaning "inhabited place" (commonly used as a Persian suffix for naming places, such as Khorramabad, a city in Iran, and Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan). The name of the city corresponds to its geographic location on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan border. A historical part of the Iranian city Karaj shares the same name, Sarhadabad.
Guşgy is a Turkmenized form of the Persian word kushk (کوشک), a term referring to mountain forts. In 1885 after taking the Panjdeh oasis Russian troops constructed a fort on the site of present-day Serhetabat and named it for the village of Kush in Afghanistan.[4] Guşgy is also the name of the river flowing beside the city.
The Turkmenistan government changed the name to Serhetabat on 29 December 1999 by Parliamentary Resolution HM-67.[5]
Overview
[edit]
In 1885, Serhetabat and the surrounding region were seized from Afghanistan by Russian forces as a result of the Panjdeh incident (also referred to as the Battle of Kushka), in which about 600 Afghan soldiers were overwhelmed by over 2500 Russian troops.[6]
The settlement was founded in 1890 as a Russian military outpost. A local rail-line branching from Merv (now Mary) on the Central Asian Railway was inaugurated on 1 March 1901, causing some degree of international excitement.[7]
A point south of the city is the southernmost point of Turkmenistan and used to be the southernmost point of the Russian Empire and of the Soviet Union.[8] A 10-metre stone cross, installed to commemorate the tercentenary of the House of Romanov in 1913, memorialises this fact.
Transport
[edit]The broad gauge railway crosses into Afghanistan at the station, Torghundi being the railhead station on the other side. It was built in 1960.[citation needed] In February 2018, the existing rail line between Serhetabat and Torghundi was restored to service.[9][10] This line is planned to be extended to Herat, where it could potentially connect to a rail line under construction from Khaf, Iran.[11] Serhetabat is the southern end of Turkmenistan highway A-388, which connects the city to Ýolöten, Murgap, and Mary. The nearest airport is at Galaýmor.
Climate
[edit]Serhetabat has a semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSk), with cool winters and very hot summers. Rainfall is moderate in winter and spring, but summer is extremely dry.
| Climate data for Serhetabat (1991-2020, extremes 1904-present) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 27.1 (80.8) |
31.0 (87.8) |
37.6 (99.7) |
40.2 (104.4) |
42.3 (108.1) |
47.6 (117.7) |
45.3 (113.5) |
43.5 (110.3) |
43.4 (110.1) |
38.8 (101.8) |
34.2 (93.6) |
31.5 (88.7) |
47.6 (117.7) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 10.1 (50.2) |
11.7 (53.1) |
17.2 (63.0) |
23.6 (74.5) |
30.5 (86.9) |
35.5 (95.9) |
37.3 (99.1) |
35.5 (95.9) |
30.8 (87.4) |
24.3 (75.7) |
16.9 (62.4) |
11.7 (53.1) |
23.8 (74.8) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 4.1 (39.4) |
5.6 (42.1) |
10.6 (51.1) |
16.4 (61.5) |
22.6 (72.7) |
27.6 (81.7) |
29.7 (85.5) |
27.4 (81.3) |
21.8 (71.2) |
15.3 (59.5) |
9.4 (48.9) |
5.4 (41.7) |
16.3 (61.4) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −0.5 (31.1) |
0.5 (32.9) |
5.2 (41.4) |
10.0 (50.0) |
14.5 (58.1) |
18.5 (65.3) |
20.3 (68.5) |
17.9 (64.2) |
12.6 (54.7) |
7.3 (45.1) |
3.4 (38.1) |
0.6 (33.1) |
9.2 (48.5) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −33.8 (−28.8) |
−27.7 (−17.9) |
−19.6 (−3.3) |
−5.5 (22.1) |
−0.8 (30.6) |
4.1 (39.4) |
9.7 (49.5) |
5.5 (41.9) |
−3.7 (25.3) |
−10.5 (13.1) |
−19.0 (−2.2) |
−27.1 (−16.8) |
−33.8 (−28.8) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 48.1 (1.89) |
58.5 (2.30) |
68.0 (2.68) |
40.2 (1.58) |
12.9 (0.51) |
0.7 (0.03) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0.3 (0.01) |
4.7 (0.19) |
25.7 (1.01) |
37.6 (1.48) |
296.7 (11.68) |
| Average extreme snow depth cm (inches) | 2 (0.8) |
1 (0.4) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
1 (0.4) |
2 (0.8) |
| Average rainy days | 7 | 9 | 11 | 7 | 3 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 52 |
| Average snowy days | 5 | 6 | 2 | 0.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 1 | 3 | 17 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 74 | 73 | 71 | 62 | 43 | 28 | 25 | 25 | 30 | 43 | 58 | 71 | 50 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 126.5 | 128.5 | 166.6 | 230.2 | 320.9 | 360.3 | 388.7 | 366.5 | 319.2 | 263.0 | 163.9 | 137.9 | 2,972.1 |
| Source 1: Pogoda.ru.net[12] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: NOAA[13] | |||||||||||||
References
[edit]- ↑ "Kushka, Turkmenistan". Falling Rain Global Gazetteer. Archived from the original on 19 April 2024. Retrieved 1 February 2013.
- ↑ "Постановление Меджлиса Милли Генгеша Туркменистана" (in Russian). Электронная газета «Золотой век». 10 November 2022. Archived from the original on 11 November 2022. Retrieved 25 December 2022.
- ↑ "Türkmenistanyň Statistika baradaky döwlet komiteti". www.stat.gov.tm. Retrieved 2026-02-10.
- ↑ Atanyýazow, Soltanşa (1980). Түркменистаның Географик Атларының Дүшүндиришли Сөзлүги [Explanatory Dictionary of Geographic Names in Turkmenistan]. Ashgabat: Ылым. p. 122.
- ↑ Turkmenistan Geoname Changes Archived 2022-01-02 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Clements, Frank. Conflict in Afghanistan: A Historical Encyclopedia. pp 198. Retrieved 2012-09-03.
- ↑ "Russia's secret railroad: Unknown to the world, 220 miles of rails have been laid". The Deseret News. 1899-04-08. Archived from the original on 2025-02-23. Retrieved 2016-09-25.
- ↑ USSR A Reference Book of Facts and Figures. London: Farleigh Press Ltd. 1956. p. 5 – via Internet Archive.
T he extreme points on the mainland area as follows:{...}South: 35° 08' N. Lat. (south of Kushka)
- ↑ "Tran Service Opens on New Turkmen-Afghan Railway: Serhetabat–Torghundi". Turkmenistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. February 24, 2018. Archived from the original on March 25, 2022. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
- ↑ "Torghundi and the railway from Turkmenistan". Andrew Grantham. 12 October 2019. Archived from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
- ↑ Cuenca, Oliver (December 9, 2020). "Iran – Afghanistan railway ready for traffic". International Railway Journal. Archived from the original on April 17, 2021. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
- ↑ "Weather and Climate-The Climate of Serhetabat" (in Russian). Weather and Climate (Погода и климат). Retrieved 30 July 2025.
- ↑ "Climate Normals for Kuska". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
