Nakhchivan City

Nakhchivan city is the centre of an Azerbaijani exclave separated from the rest of the country, reached by air, and it holds one of the finest pieces of medieval architecture in the Caucasus: the Momine Khatun mausoleum, built in 1186 by Ajami Nakhchivani, a ten-sided brick tower covered in interlaced geometric brickwork and turquoise glaze. The Yusuf ibn Kuseyir tomb by the same architect stands nearby. The Yalli group dances of Nakhchivan were added to the UNESCO urgent safeguarding list in 2018, and they are performed here at festivals and gatherings.

History

Ptolemy's Geography first names the city as Naxuana, and the historian Movses Khorenatsi writes that King Tigranes I settled Median captives here in the 2nd century BC; Emperor Heraclius passed through in 623. In the Middle Ages it passed through many hands, the Mongols took it in 1236, Genoese merchants were trading here by 1280, and Timur conquered it in 1401. Shah Ismail I took it in 1503, Shah Abbas I won it back from the Ottomans in 1603-1604, and it later became the capital of the Nakhchivan Khanate, which passed to the Russian Empire by the Treaty of Turkmenchay in 1828; in 1849 the city became the centre of an uyezd of the Erivan Governorate (Wikipedia, Nakhchivan - city).

What to look for

• Momine Khatun mausoleum - a ten-sided brick tower of 1186, its whole surface worked in geometric brick.
• Yusuf ibn Kuseyir tomb - an earlier tower by the same architect, on the edge of the city.
• The Yalli dances - the chain and circle dances of Nakhchivan, on the UNESCO urgent safeguarding list.
• The khan's palace - an eighteenth-century residence, restored as a museum.

When to go

April to June and September to October are comfortable; the summer here is very hot and the winter cold. Festivals, particularly Novruz in March, are when Yalli is most likely to be danced publicly.

Practical notes

The exclave is reached only by air from Baku or overland through Turkey or Iran, which needs planning. The city has been heavily rebuilt and much of it is very new. Outside the medieval monuments there is not a great deal to see in the centre itself.

Nearby

Alinja Castle is east of the city, and Ashabi-Kahf is a short drive out of town.

Key facts