Serhetabat


Serhetabat is a small town in the Mary Province in Turkmenistan, located in the valley of the Kushka River. The population is 5,200. It is immediately opposite to Torghundi in Afghanistan, with which it is connected by a road and a gauge railway.

Etymology

The name of the city is a Turkmen borrowing from Persian 'سرحدآباد', consisted of two words: 'سرحد' meaning 'border' and 'آباد' meaning 'inhabited place'.
The name of the city perfectly matches its geographic location right on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan border.
There is also a historical part of the Iranian city Karaj with the exact same name, :fa:سرحدآباد_|Sarhadabad.

Overview

In 1885, Serhetabat and the surrounding region was seized from Afghanistan by the Russian forces as a result of the Panjdeh Incident, in which about 600 Afghan soldiers were overwhelmed by over 2500 Russian forces.
The settlement was founded in 1890 as a Russian military outpost. A local rail line branching from Merv on the Central Asian Railway was inaugurated on 1 March 1901, causing some degree of international excitement.
A point south of the town of Kushka is the southernmost point of Turkmenistan and used to be the southernmost point of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. A 10-metre stone cross, installed to commemorate the tercentenary of the Romanov Dynasty in 1913, is a memorial to this fact.

Transport

The broad gauge former Soviet Railway crosses into Afghanistan at the station, Torghundi being the railhead station on the other side. It was built in 1960. In 2007, this line was restored to use.

Climate

Serhetabat has a semi-arid climate, with cool winters and very hot summers. Rainfall is moderate in winter and spring, but summer is extremely dry.