Ashgabad dates back to about the 2nd century BCE as a small town 10 km outside Nissa, the capital of the Parthian Empire. It was demolished by an earthquake in the 1st century BCE but because of its location on the silk route it was soon rebuilt and prospering, The Mongols again destroyed it and it became the haunt of the Turkmen tribes who had no use for cities. In 1881, the Russians found only a small town that they chose to develop as a regional center that soon became quite a metropolis populated primarily by Russians.