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The original was posted on /r/todayilearned by /u/Lack_of_Plethora on 2025-06-11 14:29:59+00:00.

Original Title: TIL of Merv, a now unpopulated oasis in the Central Asian desert. It may have been the largest city in the world by population in the 12th and 13th centuries, before being massacred during the Mongol conquests, and later forcibly depopulated in 1789