The UNESCO-listed State Historical and Cultural Park Merv is the oldest and best-preserved city along the Silk Route in Central Asia, spanning 4,000 years of human history. Between the 11th–12th centuries around one million people lived here, making it the largest of the Silk Road urban centres.
The Mongols captured it in 1221 and executed its entire population – and it never recovered.Merv is such an extensive site that I don’t know how I would have visited it on my own. Probably hire a taxi and be transported from location to location. The thing about Merv is that it holds the archeological remains of 5 cities, built next to each other during different periods in time. There’s a small museum near the entrance where a model of the total area can be seen, and how the different cities are positioned.
