Ganja

Ganja is the country's third largest city, associated above all with Nizami Ganjavi, the twelfth-century poet whose mausoleum stands on the road out of town in a modern rebuilding. The centre keeps a seventeenth-century core around the Juma mosque, with two brick caravanserais facing each other and a restored bathhouse nearby. On a quiet residential street is the Bottle House, a private house faced entirely in glass bottles, built in the 1960s as a memorial by its owner and now the city's oddest landmark.

History

Medieval chronicles say Ganja was founded in the 9th century by the Arab governor Muhammad ibn Khalid, the Tarikh Bab al-abwab giving 859-860 and the historian Movses Kaghankatvatsi 846-847, and the name comes from the Persian ganj, treasure, though its Persian origin suggests an older town; the poet Nizami Ganjavi was born here. An earthquake in 1139 and the capture of the city by King Demetrius I of Georgia, who took its gates as trophies, began a decline, as did the Mongol invasion of 1231, and the city revived under the Safavids from 1501; it was capital of the Ganja Khanate until 1804, was renamed Yelizavetpol in 1813, Ganja again in 1924, Kirovabad in 1935, and Ganja once more in 1989 (Wikipedia, Ganja, Azerbaijan).

What to look for

• The Juma Mosque - a seventeenth-century brick mosque by Sheikh Bahaeddin, with twin minarets.
• The caravanserais - two brick caravanserais facing each other, restored and in use.
• The Bottle House - a private house faced in tens of thousands of glass bottles.
• Nizami's mausoleum - a tall stone tomb on the Baku road, rebuilt in the 1990s.

When to go

April to June and September to October are the comfortable seasons. Summer on this plain is hot and dusty. The city is a natural base for Goygol and the mountain roads south of it.

Good to know

Much of the historic fabric was lost and what stands has been heavily restored, so this is not an old city to look at. The Bottle House is a private property viewed from the street. Distances between sights are long and the centre is not compact.

Nearby

Lake Goygol is forty minutes south, and Naftalan is south-east along the plain.

Key facts