revealing the treasures
of Azerbaijan

Day #2:

you will visit two Caucasian Albanian temples, writer’s house-museum and excavations of ancient civilizations.

Ancient church of st. Elisha

Your first stop is an ancient Christian church built in 12th century, located in Kish village 5km away from Sheki. You will find that before the arrival of Islam in this region, the descendants of the ancient people of Caucasian Albania lived here, who adopted Christianity from the holy apostle St. Elisha.

Next stop is a house-museum of Azerbaijani writer, educator, poet, materialist philosopher and public figure, founder of national drama and literary criticism, Mirza Fatali Akhundov.

Akhundov's house museum

Mirza Fatali Akhundov was born in this house and spent his childhood and adolescence here. This is the first memorial museum opened in Azerbaijan.

Nearby you’ll see two magnificent buildings, aka caravanserai, known as upper and lower (“Yukhari ve Ashagi”), which miraculously have survived to this day.

Caravanserai (the Caravansary)

One is a two-story inn with its own inner garden where merchants and foreigners could stop and trade during their stay. The first floor of the inn served as trading point and warehouses, and the second floor was intended for housing.
Heading to Gabala, where you get to know history and culture of hospitable community by visiting another Albanian Church (“Jotari”) of 17th century.

Church in the village of Nij

The village of Nij, just 20 kilometers southwest of Gabala, is home to more Udins than anywhere else in the world. The Udins are Christians and direct descendants of one of the main tribes that lived in Caucasian Albania.
This cozy church is sheltered under the shade of majestic plane trees (“Chinars”) inside of a large garden, where there is also a special place for baptism and dedication.

At the moment, arch company SEBA wants to draw the attention of world scientists to this rare find so excavations are underway here but, same as in Kish, you can already observe the burial places of unusually tall people.

Chuhur-Gabala, an ancient city

Chuhur-Gabala is a small fishing village that breeds Caspian salmon, a class of ray-finned chordates. It is an endangered, rare subspecies. On the territory of the village are the remains of the castle and buildings of the ancient city, the capital of Caucasian Albania.
contact Mark, our tour guide, for book this rich and captivating tour via dialog pop-up in the lower corner of main page.  

join the most ancient adventure to northwestern Azerbaijan and get to know artisans' ancient city

Sheki

  • Sheki is over 2500 years old
  • Sheki Кhans' summer palace built in 17th c.
  • Hometown of famous writer Mirza Akhundov
  • Ancient Albanian temple in Kish built in 5th c.
  • Special dishes Piti & delicates sweet Halva

acquaintance with culture and goodies