Balkan Province

Balkan Welaýaty (formerly Красноводская область, Krasnowodskaja Oblast ) is one of the five provinces of Turkmenistan.

The province is located in the west of the country on the coast of the Caspian Sea and its salty lagoon Kara- Bogaz - Gol. It is bordered on the north by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and on the south by Iran. It is named after the Great Balkan, up to a 1,880 m high mountain range (not to be confused with the mountains in South East Europe).

The area is 138,500 km ², its population (2006) about 563,000, thus resulting in a population density of around 4 inhabitants / km ².

The capital of the province Balkanabat (formerly Nebit -Dag ), other major cities are Turkmenbashi (formerly Krasnovodsk ) and Serdar (formerly Kyzyl - Arvat ).