500 Manat Soltan Sanjar Mausoleum

Sultan Sanjar, the last of the great Seljuk rulers, died in 1157 after a catastrophic defeat at the hands of the Oghuz tribes who then sacked Merv and held him captive for three years. His mausoleum at ancient Merv — in present-day Mary Province — survived Mongol destruction largely intact and remained a functional landmark for centuries. Turkmenistan's post-Soviet coinage program leaned heavily on pre-Islamic and early Islamic Silk Road heritage to assert a distinct national identity, and Sanjar's tomb, a 12th-century architectural achievement with a double-shell dome, was an obvious choice.