Mountainous Shirvan

Mountainous Shirvan is the hill country west of Baku where Azerbaijan turns from steppe into the southern foothills of the Greater Caucasus. It is the old heartland of Shirvan, the medieval state whose rulers, the Shirvanshahs, held court at Shamakhi before moving to Baku, and it is the first region most overland itineraries reach on the road west from the capital.

The region's economic-region definition takes in the Shamakhi, Ismayilli, Agsu and Qobustan districts. For travelers it means four things: the monuments and wine of Shamakhi, the copper-working mountain village of Lahij, the silk village of Basqal, and the forests and mountains of Ismayilli, with a Soviet-era observatory, a Molokan village and a mountain lake along the way. Mountainous Shirvan should not be reduced to a single lunch stop between Baku and Sheki; it rewards a night.

What is Mountainous Shirvan?

Shirvan is one of the oldest names in Azerbaijani history, the region ruled from the ninth to the sixteenth century by the Shirvanshah dynasty, and the mountainous part of it, between the Caspian lowlands and the high Caucasus, is what this guide covers. It is a landscape of dry foothills that turn green as they climb, walnut and hazelnut orchards, vineyards on the southern slopes, and forested valleys above Ismayilli. Shamakhi, roughly 120 kilometres west of Baku, is the historic centre and the natural base.

One point of geography to be clear about: the region includes the Qobustan administrative district. That district shares its name with the Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape, the UNESCO World Heritage petroglyph site south-west of Baku, but the two are different places. The rock art landscape is covered in the section on combining regions below, and it is not part of Mountainous Shirvan.

Shamakhi

Shamakhi was the capital of the Shirvanshahs and, for centuries, one of the great cities of the Caucasus, a stop on the trade routes between Persia and the Volga, famous for its silk and its poets. Its history is also one of destruction. Repeated earthquakes, the last catastrophic ones in the nineteenth century, together with invasions, fires and warfare, mean that very little of the medieval urban fabric survives intact. Shamakhi today is a modern provincial town, and visitors should not expect a preserved old city or an intact Silk Road quarter.

What carries the visit instead is a handful of individual monuments, the weight of the history behind them, the vineyards and the surrounding countryside: the Juma Mosque, the Yeddi Gumbez mausoleums on the hill above the town, the ruined fortress of Gulustan on a crag to the north, the Diri Baba mausoleum on the road from Baku, the observatory at Pirgulu and the Meysari wine estate.

Shamakhi Juma Mosque

The first mosque at this location was founded in 743 AD, making it the oldest mosque in Azerbaijan and the second-oldest mosque in the Caucasus. The building has been destroyed and rebuilt many times since, by earthquakes above all; the present structure, with its three domed halls and twin minarets, reflects a major reconstruction and restoration completed in 2013, which returned the mosque to its late-nineteenth-century form. It is the town's principal monument and open to respectful visitors outside prayer times.

Yeddi Gumbez, the Seven Domes

On the hill south of the town, Yeddi Gumbez, the Seven Domes, is a funerary complex of domed mausoleums in a cemetery associated with the last ruler of the Shirvan Khanate, Mustafa Khan, and his family, built in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Shirvan Khanate was the late, much smaller successor state to the Shirvanshahs' realm, not the same polity, and the tombs belong to that later chapter. Several of the domes stand, others are ruins, and the site's setting above the town and the plain is a large part of its appeal.

Diri Baba Mausoleum

On the road from Baku, just before Maraza, the Diri Baba Mausoleum is one of the most striking small buildings in Azerbaijan: a two-storey tomb built into the face of a cliff, its pale stone seeming to grow out of the rock. It was built in 1402 on the orders of Shirvanshah Ibrahim I, and its relationship between architecture and setting is what makes it so memorable; it belongs to the Shirvan-Absheron school of architecture. European travelers described it from the seventeenth century onwards, among them Adam Olearius, Cornelis de Bruyn and Evliya Çelebi. Local legend holds that the saint buried here, Diri Baba, "the living father", did not decay, and the building's appearance of hovering against the cliff has fed the stories; they are legends, and the mausoleum is remarkable enough without them.

Pirgulu and the Shamakhi Astrophysical Observatory

About 22 kilometres north of Shamakhi, in the forested hills of Pirgulu at around 1,500 metres, stands the Shamakhi Astrophysical Observatory, named after the medieval astronomer Nasir al-Din al-Tusi. It was founded in the Soviet period, in the 1960s, and it remains an active scientific institution, with the clear, dark skies of the hills as its reason for being. Depending on current arrangements, visitors can be shown the main telescope and the small museum; check before making the drive, and treat any night programme as something to confirm rather than assume.

Pirgulu is also a resort area in its own right, with guesthouses among the trees, cool summers and walking in the surrounding reserve.

Stargazing near Shamakhi

The same dark skies that brought the observatory here make the Pirgulu hills one of the better places in Azerbaijan to see stars. It is entirely weather-dependent: cloud, haze and the moon decide the night, and visitors can participate in observatory events only when they are running. Bring a warm layer even in summer, and treat a clear night as good fortune rather than a scheduled attraction.

Meysari and Shirvan wine

Shirvan was a wine region long before the Soviet period, and the vineyards on the southern slopes below Shamakhi have revived. The best known estate is Meysari, where the first 40 hectares were planted in 2014 and the first harvest gathered in 2015 under the Shirvan Wines label. It is described as Azerbaijan's first producer certified organic to EU standards, and it offers visits and tastings. Not every Azerbaijani wine is organic and certifications are the producer's to maintain, but Meysari is a good introduction to what the region's grapes, including the native Madrasa, can do.

Lahij

Lahij is the region's famous mountain village, high in the Girdimanchay gorge in Ismayilli district, reached by a spectacular road that follows the river up from the plain. It is a roughly 2,000-year-old settlement whose cobbled main street, stone houses and workshops have kept their character; the age refers to the settlement, not to the individual buildings, most of which are far younger. Lahij was a craft town above all, and its coppersmiths made it famous: engraved copper vessels from here were traded across the Caucasus and Persia.

The copper craftsmanship of Lahij was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2015. That is a recognition of a living craft tradition, not a World Heritage Site listing for the village. Along the main street visitors can sometimes observe craftsmen at work in the small workshops, and the copperware, the carpets and the knitted wool are the region's best souvenirs. Lahij is also a base for walking in the gorge and the hills above.

Basqal and kelaghayi silk

Basqal, a village in the hills between Lahij and Ismayilli, is the home of the kelaghayi, the square silk headscarf, block-printed with natural dyes in patterns that carry meaning by colour and motif, that Azerbaijani women have worn for centuries. The traditional art and symbolism of kelaghayi was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2014, with Basqal and Sheki as its two principal centres. Basqal is the Mountainous Shirvan one. A silk centre in the village shows the printing process and sells scarves, and the village itself, with its stone houses and old bathhouse, is worth a stroll. Again, this is intangible heritage: Basqal is not a World Heritage Site.

Ismayilli and Ivanovka

Ismayilli is the district town at the centre of the region's forested north, with the Ismayilli State Reserve protecting the beech and oak forests on the slopes above it. Its most unusual village is Ivanovka, founded in 1847 by Russian Molokans, members of a dissenting Christian movement who left Russia for the Caucasus, and who kept their language, faith and farming traditions here. Azerbaijan's official tourism authority describes Ivanovka as home to the last surviving Soviet-style collective farm in the Caucasus, and the village's dairy products, honey and bread are the reason many day-trippers stop. It is a quiet, working farming village rather than a museum, and it should be visited as one.

Garanohur Lake

Garanohur is a small lake in the forested mountains of Ismayilli district, reached on foot through the beech woods from the end of the road. It is a nature and hiking experience rather than a roadside stop: the walk takes several hours in and out, the path can be steep and muddy, and conditions vary with the season and recent rain. Go with a local guide or a well-prepared group, allow a full day, and do not count on vehicle access to the lake itself.

Food in Mountainous Shirvan

Shamakhi is known for its wine and for lamb dishes; Ivanovka for Molokan dairy, honey and bread; and Lahij for a sweet called shekerchorek, a rich shortbread made with butter, eggs, cardamom and ginger and dusted with sugar, sold in the workshops along the main street. Tea houses in every village serve the region's black tea with jam and sweets.

How long do you need?

Mountainous Shirvan is often crossed in a day on the way from Baku to Gabala and Sheki, with stops at Diri Baba, the Juma Mosque and Lahij. That works, but it makes for a long day. One night in Shamakhi or Lahij allows the observatory, Basqal and Ivanovka to be added at a humane pace; two nights open the hiking. That makes Mountainous Shirvan particularly well suited to multi-day private tours.

Best time to visit

April to June and September to October are best: green hills, comfortable temperatures and, in autumn, the grape harvest and the walnut and hazelnut season. Summer is hot on the plain but pleasant in Lahij and Pirgulu, which is why they are resorts. Winter closes the higher walks and can make the Lahij road difficult after snow; the monuments and the mosque are visitable year-round.

What to combine with Mountainous Shirvan

Baku

The region begins little more than an hour west of Baku, and Diri Baba, Shamakhi and Lahij are a long day trip from the capital.

Gobustan

The Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape, inscribed by UNESCO in 2007 for its more than 6,000 petroglyphs, lies south-west of Baku on the Caspian side of the hills. It shares a name with the region's Qobustan district but is a separate place with its own story, usually visited from Baku, and easily combined with a westward journey by leaving the capital on the coast road.

Sheki-Zagatala

West of Ismayilli the road continues to Gabala and Sheki in Sheki-Zagatala, and the classic overland route through Azerbaijan runs Shamakhi, Lahij and Ismayilli, then Gabala and Sheki. Mountainous Shirvan is the natural first night of that journey.

Is Mountainous Shirvan worth visiting?

Yes, and it is underrated because so many people drive through it. Lahij alone justifies the detour, Diri Baba and the Juma Mosque carry the Shirvanshah story that Baku's palace begins, Basqal and Ivanovka are unlike anywhere else in the country, and the observatory hills give the region its own kind of night. Give it a night rather than a lunch.