Battle of Geok Tepe 1880
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1880 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | Turkmenistan | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Asia | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Russian colonisation of Central Asia | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 38.1578, 57.9664 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Geok Tepe in 1881 was the main event in the 1880/81 Russian campaign to conquer the Teke tribe of Turkmens. Its effect was to give the Russian Empire control over most of what is now Turkmenistan, thereby nearly completing the Russian conquest of Central Asia.
The battle is also called Denghil-Tepe or Dangil Teppe. Sources are inconsistent, but Denghil-Tepe seems to have been the name of the fort and also the name of a small hill or tumulus in the northwest corner of the fort. Geok Tepe ('Blue Hill') seems to refer to the general area, the modern town, a nearby village and a mountain to the south. Skrine says that fort enclosed 2.6 square kilometres (1 sq mi) or more, with mud walls 5.5 m (18 ft) thick and 3 m (10 ft) high on the inside and a 1.2 m (4 ft) dry ditch on the outside, although other dimensions are given. The area was part of the Akhal Oasis where streams coming down from the Kopet Dagh support irrigation agriculture.
The Russians killed all Turkmen males who had not succeeded in escaping from the fort, but spared about 5,000 women and children. They freed about 600 Persian slaves.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Geok Tepe (revision 1377808049), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Geok Tepe (1879) 1879 · 1 km
- Battle of Megara (1359) 1359 · 154 km
- Battle of Jam · 167 km
- Battle of Nishapur 652 · 228 km
- Siege of Nishapur (1221) 1220 · 228 km
- Battle of Dandanaqan 1040 · 309 km
Other battles of the Russian colonisation of Central Asia
Browse more: battles in Turkmenistan · Asia · 19th century battles