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Balkanabat

File:Balkanabat_(35634838822).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Balkanabat

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Balkanabat (), formerly Nebit-Dag and Neftedag, is the administrative centre of Balkan Province, the largest province in Turkmenistan. It lies at the foot of the Balkan Daglary mountain range. Balkanabat is about 450 km west of Ashgabat and 160 km east of the seaport city of Türkmenbaşy. The city layout is a grid of apartment blocks called kvartal (quarters). The main streets are Magtymguly, Pervomayskiy and Gurbansoltan eje şaýoly.

OverviewAI-generated

Balkanabat is a city in Turkmenistan that serves as the capital of Balkan Province. Established in 1933, it is located in the time zone UTC+05:00. The city has a population of 139,000, with an elevation above sea level of 17 meters. Its official name is also listed as Балканабад and Небит-Даг, and Turkmen is the official language.

The city’s postal code is 745100, and it uses the local dialing code 993 222. The license plate code for the area is BN. Balkanabat is the owner of Balkanabat Stadium.

Synthesized by Vinony from 50 facts across 7 sources: Wikidata, Open Meteo, Openweathermap, OpenStreetMap, GeoNames, Vinony graph, Geo. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Weather now

cached 2h ago
25°few clouds
13% 5.1 m/s OpenWeatherMap

7-day forecast

via Open-Meteo

Place details

Locality
Balkanabat
Region
Balkan welaýaty
Country
Türkmenistan
Population
87,822
Timezone
Asia/Ashgabat

via OpenStreetMap · GeoNames

Air quality

60US AQIModerate
PM2.5
11.7 µg/m³
PM10
43.5 µg/m³
As of 2026-08-11 05:00 · Open-Meteo

Key facts

Settlement.other_name
Balkanabat şäheri
Settlement.pushpin_map
Turkmenistan
Settlement.pushpin_label_position
bottom
Settlement.pushpin_mapsize
300
Settlement.pushpin_map_caption
Location in Turkmenistan
Settlement.subdivision_type
Country
Settlement.subdivision_type1
Province
Settlement.subdivision_name
25px Turkmenistan
Settlement.subdivision_name1
Balkan Province
Settlement.established_date
1933
Settlement.leader_title
Mayor
Settlement.leader_name
Balkan Gulmamedov
Settlement.area_total_km2
11,290
Settlement.population_as_of
2025 estimate
Settlement.population_total
87,822
Settlement.registration_plate
BN
Settlement.population_density_km2
auto
Settlement.utc_offset
+5

via Wikipedia infobox

Travel guide

Understand

Balkanabat may serve as a stopover on the trip from Ashgabat to Turkmenbashi and as starting point for excursions to Dehistan and the Yangykala Canyon.

Get around

thumb|upright=1.5|Balkanabat Airport

Do

thumb|upright=1.3|Monument to Saparmurat Niyazov

Travel guide from Wikivoyage (CC BY-SA 4.0)

~7 min read

Encyclopedic overview

20 sections
Contents
  • Etymology
  • Administrative Subdivisions
  • History
  • Amenities
  • Demographics
  • Climate
  • Industry, economy and transport
  • Transport
  • Air
  • Rail
  • Communication
  • Education
  • Religion
  • Culture
  • Notable people
  • Media
  • Twin towns and sister cities
  • Sports
  • See also
  • References

Balkanabat (), formerly Nebit-Dag and Neftedag, is the administrative centre of Balkan Province, the largest province in Turkmenistan. It lies at the foot of the Balkan Daglary mountain range. Balkanabat is about 450 km west of Ashgabat and 160 km east of the seaport city of Türkmenbaşy. The city layout is a grid of apartment blocks called kvartal (quarters). The main streets are Magtymguly, Pervomayskiy and Gurbansoltan eje şaýoly.

==Etymology== The town was founded in 1933 as Neftedag, meaning "Oil Mountain" (Russian neft, "oil", and Turkmen dag, "mountain"), as a settlement along one of the stations of the Trans-Caspian Railway. In 1946, when it was transformed into a city, it was renamed "Nebit-Dag", also meaning "Oil Mountain", but this time using the Turkmen word nebit. Nebit Dag was renamed Balkanabat (Balkan from the name of the Balkan mountains (not to be confused with the Balkan mountains in Bulgaria), abat – meaning “settlement” in Persian) in 2001 by decree of former President of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Niyazov.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Balkanabat” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (8)

On the map

3 mapped locations