It's hard to imagine it by looking at the ruins, but Nissa was the capital of the Parthians in the 3rd century BC and was an active city until the 13th century when the Mongols arrived and razed it in only 15 days...Rumors are that it's currently a candidate for UNESCO.
Ashgabat harbors one of the few statues of Lenin that remain from the Soviet era. We were told that the structure was too beautiful to tear down, so officials let Lenin live on behind the National Theatre.
