Serhetabat
Serhetabat
Serhetabat şäheri | |
|---|---|
City | |
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
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
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. This cross was one of four erected in 1913, but is the only one still remaining.
In 1988, Afghan mujahideen attacked and successfully captured this town and held it for several days.
Transport
The broad gauge railway crosses into Afghanistan at the station, Torghundi being the railhead station on the other side. It was built in 1960. 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
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
- ^ "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.