Nadir Shah – the last fortress of the last great conqueror

The Fortress takes its name from the builder of Last Empire of the Central Asia. This was the military fortress to control rebellious Turkmen tribes during the XVIII century. The territory was between Central Asian khanates and the Iranian Empire. The southern part of the country belonged to Iran. It was also the place where the future Great Turkmen Emperor was born. Nadir Shah made history of his own. His numerous campaigns of conquest resulted in formation of the large empire. Empire along with Iran, consisted of Armenia, Azerbaijan and part of Georgia, Belujistan, Khiva and Bukhara khanates as feudatory territories, and in 1739 Nadir Shah seized Delhi, the capital of the Great Mogul Empire. Upon suppression of the Astrabad revolt of the Turkmen, Nadir-Shah decided to protect this territory’s boundaries by means of building of a military fortress there.

Nadir Shah, the Turkmen ruler belongs to Afsharid dynasty. Although he is a Turkmen, his policy on Turkmen was not different from other Iranian shahs. He was ruling the empire for the period from 1736 till 1747. Many fortresses and developed cities were built during this period. The Fortress of Nadir Shah is one of them in the territory of Turkmenistan.

The length of each vallum amounted to 1,000 m, the walls thickness equals to 2-3 m, and the height came to 3m. Inside the fortress, along with the military and household buildings there was shah’s palace which did not survive up to date. The entry to the fortress was found in the north and each of its vallum features 12 watch towers, located along the perimeter. Around the fortress there was a deep moat which now is filled with sand.

The Fortress is 100 km to the east from Ashgabat. there is Abiverd city (Kakhka district), with a medieval fortress built by the order of Nadir-Shah, the Iranian ruler from the Afsharid dynasty. The architectural monument is located not far from Khivaabat village. Set in an attractive location at the foot of the Kopetdag Mountains.

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