Things to do in Northwestern Azerbaijan
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Cümə Mosque
Şamaxı’s only real sight is the big, sturdy Cümə Mosque. The original mosque on this site was supposedly the second oldest in the trans-Caucasus. Excavations of its 10th-century incarnation can be seen in the grounds where a little nodding-donkey pump has nothing to do with oil – it draws water for the congregation’s ritual ablutions. Today’s mosque building was erected in the 19th century, damaged during the civil unrest of 1918 and not restored until recent years. Nonetheless, the powerful, bare stone interior columns exude a feeling of great antiquity and the imam, dressed in fine white gown and mufti hat, is generally very happy for visitors to look around.…
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A
Çingis Klubu
The much more polished Çingis Klubu celebrates TV journalist and national hero Çingis Mustafayev who died in 1992 filming the Karabakh war. Photos of his life are complemented by a small but very well-chosen gallery of modern Azerbaijani paintings. A basement ethnographic room illustrates typical crafts. There’s also an air-conditioned cinema, whose 6pm screenings usually have English subtitles. Most films shown are somewhat more intellectual than typical Azerbaijani movie-house offerings.
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Khan’s Palace
Şəki’s foremost ‘sight’ is the two-storey Khan’s Palace, which was finished in 1762. It’s set in a walled rose garden behind two huge plane trees supposedly planted in 1530. The unique façade is decorated with silvered stalactite vaulting and geometric patterns in dark-blue, turquoise and ochre, magnificently setting off the intricate wood-framed, stained-glass windows known as şəbəkə.
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Karavansaray
Karavansaray is an historic caravanserai with a twin-level arcade of sturdy arches enclosing a pretty central courtyard. Stride through the somewhat daunting wooden gateway door and if questioned say you’re heading for the restaurant in the garden behind, a lovely place for a cuppa with a slice of Şəki’s signature halva (pastry with nuts; opposite).
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Museum of National Applied Art
Across the road is a late-19th-century Russian church in unusual cylindrical form, built on the site of a 6th-century Caucasian Albanian original. It now hosts the limited Museum of National Applied Art that displays fairly haphazard collections of Şəki crafts, including metalwork, pottery and embroidery. Hardly worth the money.
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Şəbəkə Workshop
More interesting is a Şəbəkə Workshop, where local craftsmen (no English) assemble traditional stained-glass windows, slotting together hundreds of hand-carved wooden pieces to create intricate wooden frames without metal fastenings. Small examples are sold as souvenirs.
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Russian fortress
Directly above, Zaqatala's Russian fortress was built in 1830 and guarded against attacks from the Dagestan-based guerrilla army of Imam Shamil. In more recent times, the fortress imprisoned sailors from the battleship Potëmkin, whose famous mutiny at Odessa in 1905 foreshadowed the Russian revolution.
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Şahin Kafesi
Within the fortress walls the café interior is entirely uninspiring but the outside dining booths are quaintly draped in living ivy and the food is way better than you might anticipate. The particularly outstanding vine-leaf mini dolma (AZN2) has a minty tang and arrives in a clay pot.
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Zaqatala Nature Reserve
The hills above Car make for delightful hiking, where the thick deciduous forests give way to open, grassy ridges at around 1800m. Amid 3000m-plus peaks beyond, the remote Zaqatala Nature Reserve is home to brown bear, wild boar and the endangered Caucasian tur (a huge mountain goat).
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Şəbəkə Restaurant
If you’re craving Western food, this suave jazz-toned hotel-restaurant offers professionally presented dishes at prices that seem expensive in Şəki but would be cheap as chips in Baku. Our penne in pesto sauce (AZN3.20) was perfectly al dente if lacking in pizzazz.
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Raşidbey Әfəndiyev Historical-Regional Ethnography Museum
The Raşidbey Әfəndiyev Historical-Regional Ethnography Museum, is more impressive than its exhibits: archaeological oddments, ethnographical artefacts and the usual emotive panels on WWII, Karabakh and the Xocalı massacre.
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mosque
The town's only sight, a fine 19th-century mosque, is 1km further west, two blocks south of the prominent Heydar Bağı gardens. The imam generally allows visitors to climb the mosque's unique brick minaret for a fine view over the town.
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Qaqaş Restoran
Zaqatala’s most intriguing restaurant has a façade of bottle-ends, an interior of timber rooms and a series of wooden perches out back as dining platforms. Up-beat Ukrainian music adds to the reliable food and cheap beer. Recommended.
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Çələbi Xan Restoran
The interior pine décor is eccentric enough to make you feel you’re dining in a cuckoo clock. In summer there’s lots of space amid the trees outside and for just AZN1 you can fill up on a hearty borscht and basket of bread.
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Təzə Bazaar
The expansive Təzə Bazaar sells pottery, metalwork and carpets, as well as masses of fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and cheese. Saffron is a bargain at just 50q a pouch. Get there by southbound minibus 11, 8 or 5.
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Çempion Bar
This relatively quaint one-room cellar-bar is air-conditioned and comparatively comfortable. It’s easy to miss down a narrow stairway beside a barber’s shop on ‘Tae Kwon Do Alley’.
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House Museum
The lovers of perversely off-beat attractions can nonetheless admire Raşidbey Әfəndiyev's spectacles, family portraits and the textbooks which he penned at his loveably prosaic house museum.
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Qala Düzü
The big main building is a wedding palace, not a regular restaurant, but cliff-top pavilion seats in the park outside offer lovely summer views across the river valley and of the forested mountains beyond.
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mosque
One block east of the junction of Heydar Әliyev küç and Qutqaşınli pr, the centre of town unanimously known as Saat Yanıis, is the colonnaded 19th-century mosque.
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Space Kafe
Unadorned except for photo-posters of waving Әliyevs, the only options are çay (tea, 20q) or NZS beer (60q) plus noxut (boiled chickpeas) as a bar snack.
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Car
Lost in blossoms and greenery, this is a chocolate-box village of picturesque houses tucked behind mossy dry-stone walls in abundant orchards of chestnut and walnut.
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Historical Museum
The museum displays finds from Old Qəbələ but its most intriguing feature is the fake Stone Age–style swing gate through which one enters.
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Bərəkət
This is a neat yet inexpensive eatery offers Turkish specialities, including fresh-baked pide and lahmajun (pizzas).
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Old Sheki Teahouse
Fabulously atmospheric, but only serving tea by the samovar accompanied by jams, fruit and confectionery (costing a minimum of AZN6).
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bazaar
To find the bazaar walk towards Pirqulu from Şamaxı's theatre then take the third street to the left.
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