Kish

Kish is a hillside village of stone houses above Sheki, and its church is the reason people come: a small domed building of rough stone whose foundations were excavated in a joint Azerbaijani-Norwegian project around the turn of the century. The dig found burials beneath the floor, now displayed under glass, and dated the earliest structure well before the standing building. The church is associated in local tradition with the origins of Christianity in Caucasian Albania, and a bust of Thor Heyerdahl, who supported the excavation, stands outside.

What you actually see

• The church - a small domed stone building with a plain interior, now run as a museum.
• The excavated burials - graves beneath the floor, displayed under glass where they were found.
• The village - stone houses and steep lanes running up the hillside above Sheki.
• The Heyerdahl bust - a memorial to the Norwegian archaeologist who backed the excavation.

When to go

April to October is the comfortable season, with autumn the best for the surrounding hills. The church is small and a tour group fills it, so mornings are better. Winter access is fine but the village is quiet.

Honest expectations

The church takes twenty minutes and the village little longer, so this is an add-on to Sheki rather than a destination. The dating and the historical claims attached to the site are contested among specialists, and the museum presents one reading of them. The road up is narrow.

Nearby

Sheki and its khan's palace are five kilometres down the hill.