Turkmenistan: As Ashgabat Breaks Another Record, President Anointed “Distinguished Architect”

On the day his capital received a Guinness rating as the world capital of white marble-clad buildings, Turkmenistan's attention-craving President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov added yet another title to his collection: “Distinguished Architect of Turkmenistan.”The official TDH news agency reports that Berdymukhamedov, who likes to be called “The Protector” (Arkadag in Turkmen), was granted the honorary title by the rubber-stamp parliament on May 25. The title recognizes Berdymukhamedov’s "titanic efforts put into the political, economic and cultural development of our beloved Motherland." Just in case anyone wasn’t convinced, on the same day Berdymukhamedov received another recognition for his efforts. Craig Glenday, the editor-in-chief of the Guinness World Records book, flew in to present the distinguished architect with a certificate recognizing Ashgabat as the city with the most white marble-clad buildings in the world, TDH reported. "In an impressive architectural re-styling effort led by the government of Turkmenistan, an area measuring 22 km² (8.49 mi²) in the capital Ashgabat boasts 543 new buildings clad with 4,513,584 m² (48,583,619 ft²) of white marble," the Guinness website says. "If the marble was laid out flat, there would be one square meter of marble for every 4.87 m² of land."This is Ashgabat’s fifth Guinness record. Previously the city won records for the world's tallest unsupported flagpole (which has since been stripped away by Azerbaijan and, now, Tajikistan), “greatest number of fountain pools in a public place,” the “largest architectural star” in the world, and the world's largest indoor Ferris wheel. If there’s a Guinness for president with the largest number of gratuitous titles, Turkmenistan must be getting close to winning that one, too.