Main Turkmen Canal

The canal was intended to transport water from the Amu Darya river to Krasnovodsk (now Türkmenbaşy), a city in Turkmenistan on the coast of the Caspian Sea.

The design was to bring water from the Amu Darya, across Turkmenistan to the coast of the Caspian Sea to irrigate the Karakum Desert.

The length of the canal was to be more than 1200 kilometers, beginning from Takhiatash, a town/city in Uzbekistan, then extended 10 km from the town of Nukus to Krasnovodsk on the Caspian Coast of Turkmenistan.

A system of weirs, sluices, reservoirs, hydroelectric power plants, diverters and conduits, over 1000 kilometers long was planned along the canal's route.

The purpose of the canal was cotton growing, mastery of the new earth in the Karakum Desert, and later, navigation from the Volga River to the Amu Darya.

Shipments of goods from the entire country entered Takhiatash, and according to recollections, were stored poorly, and substantial portions were considered unusable.

Less than a month after the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, construction of the Main Turkmen Canal ceased, alongside similar projects such as sections of the Volga–Baltic Waterway.

Construction of Qaraqum Canal drained the Amu Darya river and therefore enabled huge areas to be opened for cotton production.