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Ashgabat Carpet Museum World Largest Carpet

Visit the National Carpet Museum of Turkmenistan — the museum housing the world's largest hand-woven carpet (certified by the Guinness World Records), measuring 301 square meters, alongside a collection tracing the 4,000-year history of Turkmen carpet weaving and the five tribal traditions that have made Turkmen carpets among the most collectible in the world.

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1
World's Largest Carpet Gallery
The gallery housing the world's largest hand-woven carpet — the monumental rug measuring 301 square meters woven to celebrate Turkmenistan's independence and the achievements of the Niyazov era, the carpet requiring 40 weavers working for over a year, the traditional Tekke gul (tribal emblem) pattern reproduced at colossal scale in crimson and white.
2
Five Tribal Design Gallery
The gallery of the five main tribal carpet designs — the Tekke, Yomut, Ersari, Salor, and Saryk tribal traditions each displayed with examples of their characteristic patterns, the gul (tribal emblem) designs that distinguish each tradition being the most internationally recognized system of tribal identification in Central Asian textiles.
3
Carpet Weaving Demonstration
The carpet weaving demonstration — the museum's weavers working at traditional vertical and horizontal looms, the knot-by-knot construction of pile carpet visible in the demonstration, the speed and precision of the experienced weavers producing the closely-knotted wool pile that gives Turkmen carpets their characteristic dense texture.
4
Ancient Carpet Fragments
The ancient carpet fragments from archaeological excavations — the fragments of pile carpet from Merv and other Central Asian sites dating to the medieval Islamic period showing the continuity of the design tradition across a thousand years, the museum's collection connecting the contemporary craft to its historical roots.
5
Presidential Gift Carpets
The collection of presidential gift carpets — the woven portraits and commemorative carpets presented to foreign heads of state and received in return, the Turkmen tradition of gifting large hand-woven carpets as diplomatic presents making the museum's gift collection a record of Turkmenistan's foreign relations since independence.
6
Natural Dye Workshop
The natural dye workshop in the museum — the demonstration of the traditional dyeing techniques using pomegranate skins, walnut hulls, and indigo plants to produce the characteristic colors of Turkmen carpets, the deep reds from madder root and the warm browns from local minerals.