Firyuza

17.11.2001

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Each Ashgabat inhabitant knows that place. People go there on weekends or with passes. There is fresh mountain air and clear blue sky there. On the hottest days it is cool and at nights it is even cold there. There are fine conditions for rest there. Your child spending there a week will look forward to going there again. There is the largest plane tree in Central Asia, which a wonderful legend related with there. There… But that is enough! Haven’t you guessed what is it about? Of course! That place is Firuza.

Ask any inhabitant of the capital of Turkmenistan where he prefers to have a rest and nine from ten of them will answer, «In Firuza’’.

By some sources not less than thousand years have passed since people had taken a fancy to that place. Firuza is a real minion of fortune. The difference in climate between it and Ashgabat is so striking that when you come there for the first time it seems that you have covered hundreds of miles. However, the settlement is 35-40 km far from the capital. Going along the Firuza highway we are drinng in a deep gorge named after the settlement. The highway stretches along the river named Firuzinka, of course. The gorge is very picturesque and greenery is becoming more and more with every kilometer. There on banks of the river one can see many people resting in the warm weather. Some of them come there in the morning and return home in the evening but many of them cannot help refusing cool nights even in the peak of summer heat and stay the night. Struggling with temptation to stay there we remind ourselves that the aim of our trip is Firuza itself and sighing we are going further.

Overcoming about ten kilometers by a windy hard surface strip we are passing by the Vanovsky settlement, orchards and vineyards, the seismic station and the observatory of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan. A beautiful panorama of the Kopetdag Mountains is appearing before us and it is impossible to tear ourselves away from snow-covered tops. There are nine kilometers between Vanovsky and Firuza. Then the valley is narrowing and, at last, we are entering the settlement itself.

As it has been mentioned before Firuza is an ancient settlement and has its own history. An ancient caravan route from Samarkand and Bukhara to Persia laid the way there. Apparently, that is why people have been living there for many centuries. If you are in Firuza for the first time they are for sure telling you what the place’s name resulted from. Local people like that really beautiful legend very much and tell it again and again with great pleasure.

A minute later after the beginning of the story you are transferring yourselves to ancient times when endless internecine wars proceeded in Iran. In order to shield people from senceless losses the head of one tribe, a very rich sheikh, crossed the Kopetdag Mountains and settled down in the beautiful gorge. But after some time enemies found the place and blood was shed again. All the sheikh’s sons, seven in number, were killed one after another. The father dissuaded his only daughter Firuza from taking up arms but she was indomitable. And at the head of the troops, she mortally wounded took enemies to flight. But there was no triumph in it. The cost of the victory was too high. Blackened with grief the old sheikh buried his children close to each other and planted eight plane-trees at the head of their graves.

Years passed and plane-trees began to grow together forming a single trunk four meters in diameter. And the tree was called «The Seven Brothers». It is surprising that up to nowadays it grows in the center of Firuza being probably the main sight of the township. It is impossible to be in Firuza and not to see that tree.

Thanks to the fact that since the beginning of the century Firuza has been considered to be a place for rest it is impossible to find another climatic health-resort in Turkmenistan more suitable for that purpose. To tell the truth, holiday homes there are not so comfortable and convenient as at international health-resorts because they were built many years ago (some country cottages were built in the end of the 19th century). But absence of the developed system of service is compensated with interest by ecological purity and freshness of wild nature, severe beauty of mountains surrounding Firuza and customary hospitality of its people.

Swimming pools, saunas, tennis-courts and shady alleys are at holidaymakers’ disposal. Health camps for children in Firuza are a favourite place for summer rest for schoolchildren. There are cinemas, stores, restaurants and cafes. But signs of civilization match harmoniously with Fifuza’s unique peculiarity and one can feel the nature’s real breath as in an undeveloped place. Those who were in Firuza even once remain its admirer forever.

There is another version on the settlement’s name origin. According it the settlement was named after the Persian feudal lord of the 15th century Faruz. It is possible but you will admit that it is dull. After all, it is not important if the girl Firuza really lived and had seven brothers. Each of us is romantic in his soul and inclined to believe in more beautiful and poetical stories and can’t help falling in love with Firuza at first sight.

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