[3] Ahal's agriculture is irrigated by the Karakum Canal, which stretches all the way across the province from east to west, tracking Turkmenistan's southern border.

Ahal is known for the Battle of Geok Tepe of 1881, today the site of the imposing Saparmurat Hajji Mosque, and for the Bäherden underground warm lake (in the Kov Ata karst cave),[4][5] both west of Ashgabat.

Nisa, since 2013 located within the city limits of Ashgabat, was likely founded in the third century BCE and was the first capital of the Parthian Empire.

[12] The Ahal area was formally part of Persia but de facto autonomous under Turkoman tribal control until Russian forces defeated the Teke army at the Battle of Geok Tepe in January 1881.

The resolution renamed Ashgabat oblasty (Russian: Ашгабатская область, Turkmen Сyrillic: Ашгабат областы) to Ahal welaýaty.

Khiva historians Munis and Agahi write that the name means "drainage ditch" and it was so named because the Ahal lands were swampy and suitable for rice cultivation (MITT, II, p. 359)...Vambery, on the other hand, writes that the word is derived from the word ak [white] and the addition of -al (Vambery, p.

[16]Effective January 5, 2018, Ahal Province (Ahal welaýaty) is subdivided into 7 districts (etrap, plural etraplar):[17][18][19] As of 9 November 2022, the province included 9 cities (города or şäherler), 9 towns (посёлки or şäherçeler), 82 rural or village councils (сельские советы or geňeşlikler), and 231 villages (села, сельские населенные пункты or obalar).

[24] On June 28, 2019, a $1.7 billion factory for producing gasoline out of natural gas was commissioned in Ovadandepe, Gökdepe District.

[26][27][28][29][30] In 2019, Turkmenistan produced 5.1 million standard square meters (4mm thickness) of sheet glass, all of it in Ahal.

[35] A steel smelter, Türkmen Demir Önümleri Döwlet Kärhanasy (English: Turkmen Iron Products State Enterprise), operating on scrap metal is located at kilometer 22 on the Ashgabat-Dashoguz Automobile Highway near Ovadandepe.

The National Space Agency's ground station for communicating with the TurkmenÄlem-52E satellite is located approximately 6 kilometers north of the Ashgabat city limit off the P-1 highway.