This was the na­me of a bloo­ming oa­sis located in the ancient del­ta of the Murg­hab River in an­tique ti­mes, which ama­zed travel­lers with its fer­ti­li­ty and develo­ped cul­tu­re.

From ti­me im­me­mo­rial, the cent­re of that re­gion bles­sed by all the gods was Merv. In that mul­ti­faceted and mul­ti-tri­bal tra­de cent­re, located at the cross­roads, ar­tis­tic sty­les, cul­tu­res and cults of the East and the West develo­ped in­ter­pe­net­ra­ting with each ot­her. And various re­li­gious be­liefs we­re in­tert­wi­ned in­to the comp­lex pictu­re of con­fes­sio­nal his­to­ry – Zo­roast­ria­nism, Chris­tia­ni­ty, Ma­nichaeism and Budd­hism, which ma­de the spi­ri­tual at­mosp­he­re of this ancient cent­re of world civili­sa­tion ab­so­lu­te­ly unique. A Budd­hist stu­pa, a temp­le of the “great sacred fi­re” and an oval Chris­tian mo­nas­te­ry built al­most near­by tes­ti­fy to the at­mosp­he­re of great re­li­gious to­le­rance.