Day #1:
you will visit two mausoleums, Azerbaijani writer’s house-museum, Shamakhi’s mosque and famous Mysterious palace of Sheki Khans.
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Day #1:
you will visit two mausoleums, Azerbaijani writer’s house-museum, Shamakhi’s mosque and famous Mysterious palace of Sheki Khans.
On the way, you will stop in the village of Maraza to look at the ancient mausoleum of Diri Baba. The mausoleum was built in the 14th century.
Later visiting another mausoleum, an architectural monument was built in 18th century for a family of Mustafa khan – the last khan of Shamakhi.
Heading to Shamakhi, the oldest city standing on the Great Silk Road, that was the Shirvan Khanate’s capital in the 8-16th centuries, also being a residence of famous Shirvanshahs.
“Juma Mosque” – the largest religious building in the city, among others, was built in the 8th century (742) and is considered the first mosque in the Caucasus after the cathedral Derbent’s Juma Mosque, built in 734. The mosque is a large complex of pare of spire minarets, one central and two side halls, a pointed dome, columns of side sections and an oblong interior.
Due to frequent destructions, mainly caused by earthquakes, it was reconstructed in 1656, 1860, 1909, and lastly in 2009
There are numerous ancient buildings, the Gilehli minaret of the 18th century, but without a doubt, the most unique is the magnificent summer palace of the Sheki khans, built in the 17th century without a single nail with a luxurious hand-painted wall and stained glass windows.
City is a center for the silk products manufacture, but also famous for its handmade. Here you can buy jewelry, engraved products of local craftsmen, silk head scarves and silk carpets. Sheki is a well-groomed city with its architecture (red tiles), Sheki was founded in the 5th century BC
Heading to Shamakhi, the oldest city standing on the Great Silk Road, that was the Shirvan Khanate’s capital in the 8-16th centuries, also being a residence of famous Shirvanshahs.
“Juma Mosque” – the largest religious building in the city, among others, was built in the 8th century (742) and is considered the first mosque in the Caucasus after the cathedral Derbent’s Juma Mosque, built in 734. The mosque is a large complex of pare of spire minarets, one central and two side halls, a pointed dome, columns of side sections and an oblong interior.
Due to frequent destructions, mainly caused by earthquakes, it was reconstructed in 1656, 1860, 1909, and lastly in 2009
Next stop
there is a moderate house-museum of satirical poet, philosopher and teacher, public figure Mirza Alakbar Sabir.
Sheki city.
CIty is a center for the silk products manufacture, but also famous for its handmade. Here you can buy jewelry, engraved products of local craftsmen, silk head scarves and silk carpets. Sheki is a well-groomed city with its architecture (red tiles), Sheki was founded in the 5th century BC.
There are numerous ancient buildings, the Gilehli minaret of the 18th century, but without a doubt, the most unique is the magnificent summer palace of the Sheki khans, built in the 17th century without a single nail with a luxurious hand-painted wall and stained glass windows.
Day #2:
you will visit Caucasian Albanian temples, house-museum and excavations of ancient civilizations.
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.
Two magnificent caravanserai, known as upper and lower (“Yukhari ve Ashagi”), have survived to this day in Sheki. 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; rooms for rent here.
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 was born in this house and spent his childhood and adolescence here. This museum is also the first memorial museum opened in Azerbaijan.
You get to know history and culture of this hospitable community by visiting the beautiful Albanian Church (“Jotari”) of 17th century.
The village of Nij, just 20 kilometers southwest of Gabala, is home to more Udis 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
Our last stop for today is the excavations site of the ancient city in the beautiful region of Gabala
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.
At the moment, the archaeological 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.