Ashgabat. Ashkhabad city was founded on the site of the Turkmen settlement in 1881 as a frontier fortification and the center of the Trans-Caspian region, ruled by the military administration. Consisted of a set of mud houses with orchards, situated on the straight streets designed. Has long been a one-story, because after several earthquakes banned build higher. The city's population at the beginning of the century was small, so in 1901 it amounted to 36 500 people, of whom 11 200 Persians, 10 700 Russian, 14 600 Armenians, Caucasian Tatars and other nationalities. Turkmens have lived outside the city in their encampments. In 1948, in Ashgabat was a catastrophic earthquake in the epicentral region of 9-10, one of the largest in the world in the XX century. The city was completely destroyed. According to different estimates of that tragic day have died from half to two thirds of the population of the city (ie from 60 to 110 thousand people, because the information on the number of people are not accurate). Help peoples of the USSR contributed to the restoration of Ashgabat in the short term.