3-Day Turkmenistan Heritage Tour from Farap to Sarakhs via Merv

• Meet your tour guide upon arrival and begin your guided tour.
• After breakfast, say goodbye to Uzbekistan as you make your way to the Turkmenistan border at Alat/Farap.
• Upon arrival at the border point, complete customs procedures and continue driving to Mary province for about 4 hours (270 km).
• Have lunch at 12 pm at a local restaurant in Turkmenabat.
• In the afternoon, visit Ancient Merv. Merv was located at the crossroads of the Great Silk Road and quickly became one of the largest cities of the ancient world. It was also one of the most important capitals of Islam, along with Baghdad, Cairo, and Damascus.
• Go on a guided tour with your Turkmenistan tour guide to Gyz Gala, Erk Gala, Soltan Gala, Soltan Sanjar Mausoleum, and Ibn Zeid Mausoleum.
• Continue driving to Mary city, check in at the hotel, and have dinner at a local restaurant.

Overnight at the hotel.

• After breakfast, visit the fifth centre of civilisation, Margush/Gonurdepe. A remarkable Bronze Age civilisation existed here, known variously as Margush, meaning "lowland", or by the Greek name Margiana. It has been gradually uncovered since the early 1970s by the late Professor Viktor Sarianidi, the leader of the Margiana Archaeological Expedition. The Bronze Age sites are found at or beyond the northern edge of the present-day oasis, on land that is now desert. Climatic change and progressive desertification caused the abandonment of the area, with the result that the ruins of the Bronze Age settlements are well preserved beneath the desert soils. The Margiana sites seem to have had close ties with those at Bactria, in present-day northern Afghanistan. Sarianidi argued that the Bactria-Margiana complex was a major centre of ancient civilisation and speculated that Margiana may even have been a birthplace of Zoroastrianism.
• Have lunch at a local restaurant, then continue to the National History and Ethnology Museum.
• Drive to Mary.

Rest and have dinner at a local restaurant.

Overnight at the hotel.

• After breakfast, check out of the hotel and transfer to Sarakhs to cross the Turkmenistan-Iran border.
• Cross the border between 11:00 am and 12:00 pm.