The idea of building many hotels and statues during economic downturns may appear to be a terrible idea to some, but in Turkmen Fasher and many other places, this has been the norm. According to the book Inside Central Asia by Dilip Hiro, modernizing Ashgabat meant raising many central neighborhoods to create a network of boulevards with lavish palaces of white marble and green-tinted glass dotted with massive fountains and statues of Niyazov and his parents as well as historical Turkmen personalities guarded by uniformed security men standing to attention.