環球之旅:土庫曼斯坦沙漠中的冰雪宮殿
President Niyazov of Turkmenistan has ordered the construction of a palace made of ice in the heart of his desert country, one of the hottest on is the latest in a series of colossal building projects instigated by the all-powerful president that seem to defy the country's environment."Let us build a palace of ice," said President Niyazov, "big and grand enough for 1,000 people."
土庫曼斯坦位於沙漠地區，是世界上最炎熱的地方之一，而土庫曼斯坦總統尼亞佐夫最近卻下令在該國中心地區修建一座冰雪宮殿。尼亞佐夫，這位擁有至高權力的總統似乎在挑戰本國的自然環境，他提議建設一系列大型建築項目，其中包括最近提出的修建“冰宮”的計劃。總統尼亞佐夫說：“讓我們建造一座能夠容納1000人的巨大而莊嚴的冰雪宮殿吧。”
The palace will stand in the mountains just outside the capital, ident Niyazov made the announcement in a speech broadcast on Turkmen television, which in effect made it a presidential order.
宮殿將會建在首都阿什哈巴德城外的山上。總統尼亞佐夫在土庫曼斯坦的電視講話中宣佈了這條消息，實際上這就是總統御令。
The idea is to build the palace in the Copa Deg Mountains outside Ashgabat, now baking in the summer heat, with a long cable-car running up from the city."Our children can learn to ski," Mr Niyazov enthused, "we can build cafes there, and restaurants."President Niyazov's extravagant buildings are a hallmark of his idiosyncratic is currently building one of the biggest mosques in the world, and has a chain of conventional palaces.
這座宮殿將被修建在阿斯噶巴特城外的庫帕岱格山上，在夏日的驕陽下，庫帕岱格山現在正是一片火熱，長長的纜車從城市通往山頂。尼亞佐夫興奮地說：“我們的兒童可以學滑冰。還可以在那兒建咖啡館和飯店。”總統尼亞佐夫修建的奢華建築反映了他特殊的政治權力。
But the latest have a special quality - of challenging Turkmenistan's desert well as the ice palace, there is to be a vast aquarium. The projects tend now to be sites of recreation for the people, like a Disney-style theme park instead of state is in keeping with Mr Niyazov's image as a servant of his people, who lays on every sort of amenity for them.
目前，他正在建造一座清真寺，其規模之大，位居世界前列，他還下令建造了一系列傳統宮殿。但是，最近要修建的這座宮殿有些特殊，它向土庫曼斯坦的沙漠氣候發出了挑戰。除了冰雪宮殿外，還要建一座巨大的水族館。這些項目像迪斯尼的主題公園一樣，將成爲人們消遣娛樂的場所，而不是國家宮殿。
Ice palaces were popular in the Soviet Union, to which Turkmenistan once belonged, but they were built in the freezing cities of the north, far Turkmen mountains are relatively high, but it is hard to imagine the palace remaining frozen without some sort of technical help.
這正符合尼亞佐夫人民公僕的形象。他一直致力於爲人民提供各種生活福利。冰雪宮殿在前蘇聯非常流行（土庫曼斯坦曾屬於前蘇聯），可它們大都建在地凍天寒的遙遠的北方城市。土庫曼山的海拔相對來說比較高，但是如果沒有一定的技術支持，很難想象宮殿能夠一直保持冰凍的狀態。
