Murgap, Turkmenistan
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Murgap
Murgap şäheri | |
|---|---|
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  Murgap Location in Turkmenistan | |
| Coordinates: 37°29′47″N 61°58′26″E / 37.49639°N 61.97389°E | |
| Country |  Turkmenistan |
| Province | Mary Province |
| District | Murgap District |
| Township | 1940 |
| City status | 1st August 2016 |
| Population (2022 official census) | |
• Total | 14,822 |
| Time zone | UTC+5 |
Murgap, previously known as Stalino (in Russian: Сталино) or Moskovskiy (Московский), is a city and capital of Murgap District in Mary Province, Turkmenistan. The city is located 15 km southeast of Mary and 40 km northwest of Ýolöten. In 2022, it had a population of 14,822 people.[1]
The city is named for the Murgap River. Folk etymology claims that "Murgap" comes from the Turkmen root words mur - "water" as in yagmur/yagmyr, literally translated as "drops of water" or "raindrops", plus gap, a dish or box, denoting the land as a place with water. However, Atanyyazow explains that the name is of Persian, not Turkic, origin; it was in earlier times Margab, and that later, as a result of folk ethnology, the first syllable's a sound was replaced by a u, making murg ab, "bird water". Atanyyazow notes as well that Hafiz-i-Abru recorded in the 15th century that the name was originally Merab, "River of Merv", and that al-Istakhri wrote, "...this river was named after the place where it flowed," and thus ultimately comes from an ancient variant name of the city of Mary.[2]
During the Soviet period the then-"town of urban type" (Russian: посёлок городского типа) was named Stalino in honor of Joseph Stalin.[3] Following Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin in 1961, the name was changed to Moskovskiy (Russian: Московский), in honor of Moscow, the capital city of the Soviet Union, then still later to Murgap (Russian: Мургаб).
