About a year ago, our newspaper wrote about the work conducted by archaeologists of the National Directorate for the Protection, Study and Restoration of Historical and Cultural Monuments on the archaeological sites located on the “Turkmen” sections of the Great Silk Road to include some of them in the UNESCO World Heritage List. In April 2022, the President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov issued the Resolution approving the State Programme for the preservation, protection, study and attraction of tourists to national historical and cultural heritage sites for 2022–2028. These two projects complement each other perfectly. What have scientists done in recent years? The Head of the National Directorate for the Protection, Study and Restoration of Historical and Cultural Monuments, Doctor of Architecture Muhammed MAMEDOV answered this question.

“I will start with the Ahal velayat, with the ancient monument Paryz-depe. The remains of Turkmen manor houses dating back to the 18th-19th centuries have been preserved at the foot of the site of the ancient settlement of Paryz-depe. One of these manor houses that represents a rectangular courtyard enclosed by the adobe walls almost 2 metres thick with round towers at the corners is an object of study and partial restoration under the State Programme. The specialists of our Directorate continued conducting the topographic survey around Paryz-depe, including the old kyariz network located at the foothills opposite Paryz-depe. This kyariz network supplied water to the ancient village of Kyarizek and further to the settlement of Paryz-depe. When conducting exploratory research, experts stumbled upon one of the kyarizes that has a unique design: the walls of its underground water supply tunnel are made not of cobblestones, as has been practiced everywhere for thousands of years, but of specially made ovoid ceramic rims. In 2019, a similar construction of kyariz was discovered near the site of the ancient settlement of Abiverd in the territory of Kaahka etrap. The discovery of such a rare underground water tunnel made of ceramic rims in the kyariz system near Paryz-depe testifies to its centuries-old use in the territory of the Ahal velayat along the northern foothills of the Kopetdag Mountains.