View allAll Photos Tagged Azerbaijani,
Detail of a gravestone.
Eddi Gumbez (15 th century) mausoleum and graveyard in Shamakhi (Azerbaijan).
At the foot of Gulistan Fortress is located Eddi Gumbez Mausoleum or “Seven Domes”. This is how people named Shamakhi tomb of Shirvan Dynasty rulers. There the notorious representatives of Shirvan Dynasty were buried. The monument's name is defined be the number of gravestones in the crypt. Today the gravestones look like half-destroyed stone domes as if grown directly from under the ground in the middle of deserted graveyard. Therefore the atmosphere of this district seems a little mysterious.
Shamakhi town is the administrative center of the district. Its population exceeds 83000. It is located 120 km from Baku.
In ancient times Shamakhi was the capital of Shirvan - the state of Shirvanshahs, which was established in the 18th century along with other smaller states after weakening of the dynasty of Abbasids. The town has a glorious but tragic history - it has been devastated many times. And not only by invaders but also as a result of earthquakes since this is an area of high seismicity. When in 1191 Kizil Arslan of Atabeks Eldenisids dynasty seized and grounded the city Shirvanshah Ahsitan the 1st temporarily relocated the capital to Baku. However, in 1501 both Shamakhi and Baku were captured by Shah Ismail Sefevi. 37 years later Shirvan's existence as an independent state ceased and Tahmasib Sefevi founded the state of Sefevids. Afterwards Shamakhi was frequently destroyed in wars with Turkish Ottomans. Not only people were killed, architectural monuments and books were also destroyed.
Architecture in the old town of Baku (Azerbaijan)
The first written reference to Baku dates from 885, although archaeologists have found remains of a settlement predating by several centuries the birth of Jesus. The city became important after an earthquake destroyed Shemakha and the of the 12th century and the Shirvanshah, Ahistan I, made Baku the new capital. In 1813 Russia signed the Treaty of Gulistan with Persia by which Baku and most of the Caucasus region were annexed from Iran and transferred to Russia.
There are a few theories about the origin of the name, the most widely known being that Baku comes from the Persian word Bagh-Kuh (the Mount of God). The Name of Baku is also popularly explained as coming from the Persian word "bad kube", meaning "city of winds".
Local market in Sheki (Azerbaijan).
Sheki.
Situated 700m above sea level, like an amphitheatre surrounded by mountains and forests of oak trees, Sheki rises above fertile yaylags (pastures) and fields. The area is very picturesque, with narrow gorges and green valleys, springs, water falls and mineral water springs framed by dense woods and alpine meadows. In the town, you'll see old brick houses, shaded streets, weeping willow trees and canals carrying spring water. The original settlement dates back to the late bronze age. Once we enter recorded history, invaders were frequent visitors. Its name is believed to originate from the name of saks tribe that arrived in Azerbaijan in VII B.C. The city became very well known as a center of Sakasena region of Alban kingdom. When Christianity spread in the Caucasus, Sheki became one of its important centers. During the 7th century Sheki was taken by arab invaders becoming dependent on a local emirate - Sheki suffered from Arab-Khazar war for 150 years. However in the 9th century with the weakening of arab power a Christian state was re-established by the last remaining forces of the Albanian kings. It was later taken by the Shirvanshahs, the Mongols under Tamerlane and the Safavids. By the 18th century Sheki was capital of its own Khanate, only to be taken by the Russian Empire in 1805. Following the Russian revolution the Red Army eventually only took Sheki in 1920.
Sheki is long famed as a silk centre and an important stop on the silk route, Sheki is still the site of a huge factory that was once the Soviet Union's largest silk plant (such a big factory was naturally named after Lenin... - now ask for the 'ipek kombinat'). In its golden period the factory employed over 7.000 (out of a population reaching almost 100.000). Nowadays the silk industry is still alive, but through smaller private workshops. The agricultural activity is quite important, with tobacco, grapes, grain, nuts, cattle and milk as the the main products.
Mud vulcanoes of Qobustan (Azerbaijan).
Azerbaijan and the Caspian Sea are home to nearly four hundred mud volcanoes - more than half the total throughout the world.
Mud volcanoes come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but those most common in Azerbaijan have several small cones, or vents, up to about four metres in height (13 feet), sometimes topping a hill ofseveral hundred metres. These small cones emit cold mud, water and gas almost continually - an amazing and even beautiful sight, which has become part of the tourist itinerary for foreigners visiting Azerbaijan.
Every twenty years or so, a mud volcano may explode with great force, shooting flames hundreds of metres into the sky, and depositing tonnes of mud on the surrounding area.
Mud volcanoes are one of the visible signs of the presence of oil and gas reserves under the land and sea in the Caspian region. Gas seeps are a related phenomenon.
These occur when a pocket of gas under the ground finds a passage to the surface. It is an unearthly sight, especially at dusk, and it is easy to understand how these fires that never appear to burn out became objects of worship. The appearance of the Zoroastrian religion in Azerbaijan almost 2,000 years ago is closely connected with these geological phenomena, and, according to one theory, the name "Azerbaijan" itself was derived from the word for "fire" in Persian.
The origins of the volcanoes are disputed. Mud volcanoes are often formed in areas of weakness in the Earth's crust, along fault lines, and are associated with geologically young sedimentary deposits, the presence of organic gas from hydrocarbon deposits, and overlying pressure which forces this gas to the surface.
As I walked around the streets of old baku this woman and a young man appeared in traditional clothes. I could not resist.
Museum of National Applied Art in Sheki (Azerbaijan).
A late-19th-century Russian church in unusual cylindrical form, built on the site of a 6th-century Caucasian Albanian original now hosts the Museum of National Applied Art. It displays fairly haphazard collections of Sheki crafts, including metalwork, pottery and and embroidery.
Old woman in Lahic (Azerbaijan).
Lahic is a small village in the Ismailly Rayon, buried deep in the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus mountains. The dirt road to Lahic winds up the Girdimanchai river gorge from the vineyards outside Shemakha, crossing the torrent on a flimsy bridge and skirting the sheer walls on narrow, roughly hewn ledges. Ice and snow cut Lahic off from the valley for weeks at a time in winter. The drive up to Lahic is as stunning as dangerous, animals appear out of nowhere in winding 'roads' that hug the cliff face that plunges down into the valley below.
Isolation made Lahic a very atypical Azeri village: Tat, a Indo-European dialect of an old Persian tongue remains to this day the primary language in Lahic and a few surrounding villages. For centuries, the valley people have spoken, at various times, Azeri, Russian, Farsi and Arabic, but here in this mountain village of about 2000 people Tat resisted all invaders and remains as strong as ever.
The town was originally a copper mining hub, but that has died down. The mountain terrain above Shemakha is ill-suited to agriculture, hence Lahic's developed into a craft center. Tourism, carpet weaving, copper and brass work (pots, samovars...) sustain the village's economy. Less important in economic terms are leather goods, wood carving and (not always legal) handcrafted pistols and hunting rifles.
Due to frequent earthquakes the village developed it own building techniques, a traditional stone-and-wood cross-tie technique known in Tat as divarchu ("wood wall"). This technique has proven results - the damage provoked by quakes in places like Shemaka remains unseen in Lahic.
You can spend a few interesting hours in Lahic. Walk along the cobblestone streets, visit the History Museum and the Mosque, browse the shops, have a look the the copper workshop or try to visit the carpets cooperative.
Frescoes in Khan's Palace in Sheki (Azerbaijan).
Sheki is famous for the 18th century Khan's summer palace. It was built in 1762 by Hussein khan who was also well known as a poet under his pen-name Mushtag. The two-storied building is decorated with magnificent frescos (one 24 m long) and exquisite stained glass work, known as 'shebeke' (northern part of the city). The Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet wrote: "If there will be no other building in Azerbaijan it will be enough to show Khan Palace to the world". Measuring thirty-two meters by eight and a half meters on the exterior, the palace is a two-story brick masonry structure elongated on the north-south axis and covered with a wooden hipped roof with long eaves. The layout of both floors is identical; three rectangular rooms are placed in a row, separated by narrow, south-facing iwans that provide access to the rooms. The summer residence is renowned for the lavish decoration of its exterior and interior. The façades are covered in tiles with floral and geometrical motives. The interior walls of the residence are covered with frescoes painted during the eighteenth century. Many of the frescoes feature flowers in vases, while a series of paintings on the first floor halls depict hunting and battle scenes. Signatures on frescoes list the names of artists Ali Kuli, Kurban Kuli and Mizra Jafar from Shemaha, Usta Gambar from Shusha, and Abbas Kuli, who may also have been the architect of the summer residence.
Inside a caravanserai in the Old Town of Baku.
The first written reference to Baku dates from 885, although archaeologists have found remains of a settlement predating by several centuries the birth of Jesus. The city became important after an earthquake destroyed Shemakha and the of the 12th century and the Shirvanshah, Ahistan I, made Baku the new capital. In 1813 Russia signed the Treaty of Gulistan with Persia by which Baku and most of the Caucasus region were annexed from Iran and transferred to Russia.
There are a few theories about the origin of the name, the most widely known being that Baku comes from the Persian word Bagh-Kuh (the Mount of God). The Name of Baku is also popularly explained as coming from the Persian word "bad kube", meaning "city of winds".
View from the Maiden Tower of Baku (Azerbaijan).
The first written reference to Baku dates from 885, although archaeologists have found remains of a settlement predating by several centuries the birth of Jesus. The city became important after an earthquake destroyed Shemakha and the of the 12th century and the Shirvanshah, Ahistan I, made Baku the new capital. In 1813 Russia signed the Treaty of Gulistan with Persia by which Baku and most of the Caucasus region were annexed from Iran and transferred to Russia.
There are a few theories about the origin of the name, the most widely known being that Baku comes from the Persian word Bagh-Kuh (the Mount of God). The Name of Baku is also popularly explained as coming from the Persian word "bad kube", meaning "city of winds".
Glass work in Khan's Palace in Sheki (Azerbaijan).
Sheki is famous for the 18th century Khan's summer palace. It was built in 1762 by Hussein khan who was also well known as a poet under his pen-name Mushtag. The two-storied building is decorated with magnificent frescos (one 24 m long) and exquisite stained glass work, known as 'shebeke' (northern part of the city). The Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet wrote: "If there will be no other building in Azerbaijan it will be enough to show Khan Palace to the world". Measuring thirty-two meters by eight and a half meters on the exterior, the palace is a two-story brick masonry structure elongated on the north-south axis and covered with a wooden hipped roof with long eaves. The layout of both floors is identical; three rectangular rooms are placed in a row, separated by narrow, south-facing iwans that provide access to the rooms. The summer residence is renowned for the lavish decoration of its exterior and interior. The façades are covered in tiles with floral and geometrical motives. The interior walls of the residence are covered with frescoes painted during the eighteenth century. Many of the frescoes feature flowers in vases, while a series of paintings on the first floor halls depict hunting and battle scenes. Signatures on frescoes list the names of artists Ali Kuli, Kurban Kuli and Mizra Jafar from Shemaha, Usta Gambar from Shusha, and Abbas Kuli, who may also have been the architect of the summer residence.