Turkmenistan the leading recipient in U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) awards worldwide. AFCP has funded 30 local projects worth over two million U.S. dollars, according to a US Embassy press release available to Daryo.
Here is a list of some unique projects: Greater and Lesser Gyz Galas; preservation of the Dayahatyn Caravanserai; research, restoration, and preservation of the Ysmamyt Ata monument; conservation and restoration of the Mohammed II Mosque in Dehistan; and restoration of the 15th Century Seyit Jemalletdin Mosque in Annau.
Recently, thanks to the financial support of AFCP, the monuments of the medieval city of Shakhrislam, one of the key trade and craft centres of the Great Silk Road, have been restored.
Specialists removed accumulated sand; restored the portals of two underground water reservoirs (sardobas); dome and arched ceilings above them; restored and reinforced the walls and stairs leading into the reservoirs. A fence has been built around the sardobas to prevent damage from rain runoff and from animals.
These sites are unique in their own way as they include Central Asia's only example of a rectangular shaped sardoba. They are made of 60 by 80-centimeter baked bricks. Sardobas was fed by a system of underground tunnels (kyariz) through which water flowed from springs in the Kopetdag Mountains for more than 20 kilometres.
The historical monument, known in medieval written sources as the Tak Yazir fortress, is located 20 km north of the town of Baherden. Shahriislam at its peak of its development occupied 100 hectares.
Credits: Eziz Boyarov
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