Mary (Turkmen pronunciation: [mɑˈɾɯ]; Cyrillic: Мары, 1992–1993: Marx) is a city on an oasis in the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan, located on the Murgab River.

[4] Atanyýazow notes that the name "Muru" appears in Zoroastrian texts alongside the toponyms Sogd (Sogdia) and Bakhti (Bactria), and that the name "Margiana" appears carved into rocks at Behistun, Iran, dating back 2,500 years.

Because of its location on the Silk Road, it revived over time only to be largely destroyed again in the 19th century by nomadic Teke raiders.

It means a certain amount of cultivated territory where half a million Tekke-Turkomans manage to eke out an existence by pastoral pursuits, plunder, and thievery, combined with the caravan service between Bokhara and Meshed.

I speak of Koushid Khan Kala, a fort at a point on the river Murghab ...[6]Mary was founded in 1884[1] as a Russian military and administrative post (and named after the nearby ancient city of Merv) after Imperial Russia occupied the area earlier that same year, which triggered the Panjdeh incident between Afghanistan, British forces, and the Imperial Russian Army.

[7] Later, the Soviet Union developed the area around Mary as a center for cotton production through the use of extensive irrigation.

The new airport terminal was constructed, as was a new building for the Turkmen State Power Engineering Institute, a theater, the new library, a new historical museum, the Palace of Spirituality (Turkmen: Ruhiýet Köşgi), the Margush Hotel, a medical diagnostic center, the Ene Mähri obstetric-pediatric medical center, the Gurbanguly Hajji Mosque, a stadium, an equestrian complex, an indoor swimming pool, and a new railway station.

Mary is a city of district-level importance, meaning that it is not part of any district, and is administratively directly subordinate to the region.

The city of Mary includes the town of Saparmyrat Türkmenbaşy, and the villages of Mülkburkaz, Soltanyz, and Ýolly.

The three-story building is designed for the storage of three million books,[23] and can manage 600 concurrent readers.