Local lore school Atlas of Turkmenistan as the result of foreign students’ scientific research

The article, based on a detailed study of the experience of creating the local lore school atlases as well as study of geography teaching program at schools of Turkmenistan, offers the structure and content of local lore school Atlas of Turkmenistan. The Atlas can be used not only in the process of teaching geography, but also as a reference manual to familiarize local residents and foreign tourists with nature, economy, people and history of this country. The analysis of topographic-geodetic and cartographic exploration of Turkmenistan has showed that the bulk of cartographic works on the territory of the country was made in the period of the Soviet Union, and some of the information is already significantly outdated. Nowadays cartographic support of Turkmenistan is still insufficient, the existing scattered cartographic products require integration, updating, unification. The local lore school Atlas offered by the authors is a cartographic product displaying the maximum available physical-geographical and socio-economic characteristics of a particular territory. The Atlas highlights the historical conditions of Turkmenistan's formation; a variety of information of regional character has been generalized and systematized. The principles for local lore school Atlas of Turkmenistan have been determined: the present, the relevance; compliance of school programs and textbooks; the expressiveness, the aesthetic appeal, presence of a large number of additional elements; bilingualism. The structure and content of school and local history Atlas of Turkmenistan, which includes maps and a list of additional items grouped in seven sections, include: «Introduction», «Natural conditions», «Population», «Economy», «Natural and historical-cultural heritage», «Environmental situation and nature conservation», «History».