Gonur Tepe

This is a fascinating archeological location 60 kilometers from old Merv. The location is a 2400-1600 BCE early Bronze Age village. Viktor Sarianidi, a Greek-Russian archaeologist, found the site in the 1950s and explored it in the 1970s. Sarianidi discovered a palace, a walled mud-brick enclosure, and temples with fire altars that he identified as Zoroastrians.

There was a center in the town's center with numerous large rooms encircled by sturdy, thick walls and a few square towers. It was most likely where the major priest lived. Temple buildings on all four corners of the palace were united by a single wall. The wall was strengthened with square towers in the corners, but they were not as large as those on the palace's external wall. A swimming pool, 180x80m in size and 2m deep, was located beyond the walls on the southern side. Other pools could be found in the temple complex's northern and western areas, but they were lesser in size.

All of these structures were encircled by a medium-sized, rather thin wall with pilasters on the inside. Scientists believe that this wall was built as a metaphor for a barrier separating the holy area from the rest of the world, rather than for defensive grounds.

Address: 627Q+H4Q, Yakeper, Turkmenistan
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