A matchbox placed next to one of the hundreds of dinosaur footprints on the plateau (Image: GETTY)
Turkmenistan isn’t probably at the top of anyone’s bucket list of places to visit.
It’s famously hard to get a visa and the tourist industry there hasn’t quite gotten off its feet.
Yet, for the hardy traveller and adventurous type, there isn’t a better place to go.
Added to this are the country’s mysterious aura, long history, and the fact that it holds some of the best dinosaur fossils found anywhere in the world.
Dinosaur Plateau, as it has come to be known, is a large limestone slab situated high in the Turkmen mountains, and offers a unique snapshot into the planet’s ancient past.
The region is home to the largest number of dino prints found anywhere in the world (Image: GETTY)
The plateau sits in the very east of Turkmenistan, in the Koytendag mountains some 1,500 meters above sea level.
It is one of the country’s most amazing natural attractions, yet few people go there.
Along the hillside, the limestone slab rests as it has done for millions of years. A vast fixture, it contains across its surface the world’s largest number of dinosaur footprints in a single place.
News of the archaeological gem only left Turkmenistan in 1980, and it soon became known as the greatest “repository” of dinosaur footprints ever found.
Similar such regions are found across Central Asia, nearby China, and the US, but none matches Turkmenistan in number and preservation.
In all, there are 150 different dino prints of all shapes and sizes, from multiple species.
Some of the footprints are so well-preserved they appear as though made only recently (Image: CC/Klaus Schönitzer)
The plateau itself is 400 meters long and 300 meters wide, and scientists have found no fewer than 3,000 well-preserved dinosaur tracks and 31 trails in the area.
The plateau itself rises well above sea level at an incline, stretching for 400 metres (Image: CC/Klaus Schönitzer)
The fact that the village had been called this for a while suggests that locals were aware of the fossils long before Soviet scientists — Turkmenistan was a part of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991 — stumbled upon them.