Ashabi-Kahf

Ashabi-Kahf is a pilgrimage site in a jumble of enormous fallen boulders on a dry hillside outside Nakhchivan, where the gaps between the rocks form chambers and passages. Local tradition identifies it with the People of the Cave of the Quran, a claim also made at several other sites across the region and not resolved anywhere. Pilgrims squeeze through narrow gaps between the rocks, tie cloth, light candles and leave offerings, and there is a mosque and a complex of facilities built at the foot of the slope.

What to look for

• The boulder chambers - spaces and passages formed between enormous fallen rocks.
• The narrow gaps - squeezes between the boulders that pilgrims pass through as part of the visit.
• The offerings - cloth, candles and coins left throughout the site.
• The complex below - a mosque and pilgrim facilities at the base of the hill.

When to go

April to June and September to October are comfortable. Fridays and religious holidays are busiest. Summer on this hillside is severely hot with no shade at all on the approach.

Good to know

The identification with the Quranic story is a local tradition, contested by other sites making the same claim, and is presented here as fact. Some of the passages are genuinely tight. This is a place of pilgrimage and visitors should behave accordingly.

Nearby

Nakhchivan city is twenty minutes west, and Duzdag is on the road between them.