Religious Tourism

Shamakhi’s greatest landmark is Juma Mosque, one of Azerbaijan’s largest and most lavish places of worship. While the current structure was reconstructed in 2013, the earliest version was built way back in 743AD, making this the second oldest mosque in the Caucasus and the oldest in Azerbaijan. Since then it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, most notably during the devastating earthquake that reduced Shamakhi to rubble in 1859 and later by inter-ethnic clashes in 1918. Besides discovering its historical and religious significance, you can enjoy simply basking in the site’s elegance and tranquillity.

Located roughly 7 km north of Ganja is one of Azerbaijan’s most important religious sites. The Imamzadeh Mausoleum (also known as the Goy dome, the Goy Mosque or the Goy Imam) was built in various stages beginning from the 14th century around the grave of one of the sons of the 5th Shiite Imam, Muhammed al-Baqir. Over the years the grave developed into a mausoleum and then a complex. A series of mosques and caravanserais surrounded by fortress walls appeared and disappeared until between 2010 and 2016 the complex was completely restored. Look out especially for the mausoleum’s exquisite blue-tiled dome, decorated with peacocks and floral patterns.

Spend half a day strolling the city centre, home to Ganja’s main historical attractions. On the central square, browse the Shah Abbas Mosque complex and medieval baths, built during the Safavid dynasty that governed Azerbaijan for over 200 years. Discover the nearby mausoleum to Javad Khan, the last khan of Ganja, following whose death Ganja became part of the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union. Traces of that are clearly visible in several more buildings around the square: the grand city hall exudes Socialist Classicism, while the Ganja Hotel and Academy of Sciences opposite are grand, imposing and Stalinist. From the square head south-west to the Khan’s Garden, a six-hectare urban oasis that’s one of Azerbaijan’s oldest parks, and don't miss the nearby Agricultural University building, which briefly housed the government of Azerbaijan’s first independent republic in 1918.

Baku’s extraordinary landscape, rich in oil and subterranean gases, has intrigued travellers since time immemorial and for centuries the Ateshgah Fire Temple in the village of Surakhani has been attracting crowds of thrill seekers. Built in the 17th–18th centuries around naturally burning flames which were previously worshipped by Zoroastrians, the site was then an important place of pilgrimage for fire-worshipping Hindus until the 1880s. Today it houses a well-designed museum and is often coupled with a trip to nearby Yanardag, the Burning Mountain in Mammadli village where a 10-metre wall of flames blazes day and night at the base of a hillside. These natural flames were described by Marco Polo in the 13th century and continue to mesmerise those who visit the site. Today you can learn all about them at the beautifully arranged new museum complex.

Just over an hour’s drive north-west of Baku along the Guba highway is a 382-metre high mountain whose bizarre shape long ago led to it being called Mt. Beshbarmag, which is Azerbaijani for ‘Five-finger Mountain’. Legend has it that sometime in the ancient past a prophet called Khidr ventured here in search of a ‘potion of life’ and having drunk from a spring at the summit achieved immortality. Today the mountain is shrouded in mystery with locals coming here to pray for strength and good fortune. As a tourist attraction, it’s well worth climbing to witness a number of age-old spiritual rituals as well as for the fantastic views of the Caspian Sea from the summit. What's more, the general area is also one of Azerbaijan’s best birdwatching sites, with the corridor between the mountains and the sea acting as a bottleneck for hundreds of migrating bird species.

Near Julfa, Ashabi Kahf (or Ashabi Kehf) is another Nakhchivan location shrouded in legend. This holy cave complex is claimed to be the one from an episode in the Koran known as the ‘Seven Sleepers’, in which seven youths suffering from the oppressive regime of a despotic local ruler named Dagh Yunus flee to a cave with a dog and fall asleep only to wake to a different world 309 years later. Today the complex, complete with mosque and shrines accessed via a network of stairs, is a popular pilgrimage site for local Azerbaijanis who come to make wishes and say prayers. The site is located about 12 kilometres east of Nakhchivan City and off the main road to Julfa.

Located opposite Guba city on the northern banks of the Gudiyalchay river, Red Settlement (also known as Girmizi Gasaba or Krasnaya Sloboda) is a truly unique place to visit. Characterised by its red-tiled roofs, this village is thought to have once been the only entirely Jewish settlement outside of Israel and the United States and the world’s last surviving shtetl. Its residents are Mountain Jews whose ancestors have been living in the Guba region for centuries. Founded in the mid-18th century, the village thrived under the protection of the ruling Guba khan, becoming a diverse yet closed community of Mountain Jews. And in the centuries since it has survived plenty of upheavals, maintaining its own culture and traditions, as well as the unique Juhuri language. A landmark new museum opened here in 2019.

Since first migrating to Baku in the early 1800s, Ashkenazi Jews have left an indelible mark on the city’s culture and landscape. Several synagogues still exist in the city: the synagogue of European and Georgian Jews which opened in 2003 and is considered one of the largest synagogues in Europe, and the Synagogue of Mountain Jews which has been functioning since 1945 and following reconstruction in 2011 is well worth seeing for anyone interested in Azerbaijan’s Jewish heritage. The very first synagogue in the city, however, was what is today’s Rashid Behbudov State Song Theatre, which was built in 1901 and functioned as a synagogue between 1910 and 1934.

Oguz in north-west Azerbaijan was historically one of the main Jewish settlements in the country whose Jewish population peaked in 1930-1933 at 2,000-2,500 residents. A unique community formed here of Jews and Muslims living together harmoniously, sharing holidays and traditions. While many left following the fall of the USSR, still some members of this community remain, with several Jewish-style houses (featuring Jewish ornaments and often facing towards Jerusalem) and two synagogues and cemeteries offering a window into the town’s Jewish past. The synagogues are named simply the Upper and the Lower due to their location in the town. The Lower Synagogue was built in 1849 and was the first synagogue in Oghuz, while the Upper Synagogue was built in 1897 and, completely restored in 2006, is visited every Friday and Saturday by Oghuz’s remaining Jewish population for prayers.

When Baku’s oil industry boomed in the late 1800s, a new architectural layer appeared around the Old City. Blending Gothic, baroque, neoclassical and art nouveau, these buildings nonetheless blended harmoniously into the urban landscape, leading visitors to nickname Baku the ‘Paris of the Caucasus’. Largely ignored during the Soviet era, local enthusiasts have since thoroughly researched these oil-boom buildings, shaping their secrets into thrilling architectural walking tours. Many of them were designed by German and Polish architects, lending parts of central Baku a distinctly European feel. For the most prominent example of German architecture in Baku, visit the neo-Gothic style Church of the Saviour on 28 May Street.

Located just over 20 kilometres south-west of Gabala, the village of Nij is home to the largest population of Udi people anywhere in the world. Udis are a Christian people directly descended from one of the main tribes living in Caucasian Albanian, an ancient state existing across much of today’s Azerbaijan from about 3BC to 8AD. In fact, they still speak an endangered language that is essentially the same as that of the ancient Albanians. Explore the history and culture of this warm community by visiting the beautifully restored 17th-century Albanian church (Chotari Church) which sits shaded by magnificent plane trees not far from the village centre.

Just five kilometres from Sheki, travel to the picturesque village of Kish to explore Albanian temple, one of our greatest monuments of Caucasian Albania – an ancient state that existed here from about 3BC to 8AD. The core of this beautiful church is thought to date to 1AD, yet archaeologists have discovered evidence that a cultic site existed here as early as 3,000BC! The church now functions primarily as a museum to Caucasian Albania and features a host of Bronze Age ceramics discovered during excavations carried out in the early 2000s by a joint Azerbaijani-Norwegian team, as well as glass-covered vaults displaying ancient graves with two-metre long skeletons.

Picturesque Zagatala is a great place to get to grips with the fascinating history of the north-western region. The top attraction are the remains of a vast fortress built here to house a Russian military garrison in the 1830s which later became famous as the place where the mutineers of the Battleship Potemkin – a key episode in the run-up to the Russian Revolution – were imprisoned in 1907. Today, what’s left are the impressive fortified walls along with the ruins of a water reservoir, stables, gunpowder warehouse, cannons and former Russian church turned cultural club. An onsite guide will happily show you around them.

Meanwhile, just beneath the fortress walls on the central Dede Gorgud Square is the well-preserved structure of a disused Albanian church dating to the 5th-6th centuries, though the current building is an 1830s red-brick reconstruction used by the Russian soldiers in the fortress. It consists of three-storeyed halls complete with bell tower and columns. To learn more about Zagatala’s intriguing history, call into the local history museum on Heydar Aliyev Avenue.

Ten kilometres south of Ganja, the story of Azerbaijan’s German colonists began in 1819 with the founding of a village called Helenendorf (now Goygol). Besides becoming a hub of German culture in the Caucasus, Helenendorf was also famous for its burgeoning wine industry that sold wine and spirits throughout the Russian Empire. The Germans may have gone – they were deported by Stalin in 1941 – but the Goygol Winery still functions and their presence continues to be felt in the town’s old German streets lined by towering plane trees. Over 300 distinctly German houses remain, one of which is the Victor Klein House, the former residence of Goygol’s last German and now a museum. Nearby is Azerbaijan’s first Lutheran church which was built in 1854 and today also houses a small museum collection. All the main sights can be discovered with the help of interactive info boards.

Modern Shamkir began life as the German colony of Annenfeld which was founded in 1819 and went on to become a hotbed of winemaking in Azerbaijan. The Germans were tragically deported from here in 1941 but today the city centre has kept a uniquely Germanic feel – think long straight streets with original German country housing, a Lutheran church dating back to 1909, and a German park with café, paths and benches. What’s more, the centrally located Excelsior hotel serves authentic craft beer homebrewed according to a German recipe.