The Türkmenbaşy railway station is the western terminus of the Trans-Caspian Railway, the line that connected the Caspian coast to Ashgabat and eventually all of Central Asia. Construction started in 1880 under Russian Imperial command and reached Samarkand in 1888 — an engineering feat across one of the world's harshest desert landscapes.
The station building retains Soviet-era features and is worth a look for its architecture and for the simple fact of standing at the end of a line that once linked this port to Moscow, Tashkent, and Dushanbe. Trains still run east to Ashgabat in about six hours, continuing to Mary and on toward the Uzbek border.