Quba

Quba sits where the mountains meet the coastal plain in the northeast, in country given over to apple and other orchards, and it has been a carpet-weaving centre for long enough that Quba carpets are a recognised group with their own patterns. The town is low-rise and green, with a nineteenth-century mosque, a bathhouse and a bazaar, and it functions mainly as the base for everything above it: the Afurja waterfall, the villages of Khinalug and Laza, and the Shahdag massif behind them.

History

Quba appears in Arabic sources of the 12th century as Cuba and in the 13th-century geographical dictionary of Yaqut al-Hamawi as Kubba, and the town grew from the riverside village of Gudial. In the mid-18th century Hussain Ali moved his residence here from Khudat, became Khan of Quba and walled the town, and the khanate grew stronger under his son Fatali Khan, from 1758 to 1789; it passed to the Russian Empire by the agreement of 1813, and Quba was placed in Derbent province in 1840 and in the Kuba uyezd of the Baku Governorate in 1860 (Wikipedia, Quba).

What's there

• The bazaar - apples, nuts, honey and preserves from the surrounding orchards.
• The carpets - Quba-group weaving, sold and made in the town and the villages around it.
• The Sakina Khanum mosque - a nineteenth-century mosque in the centre, with a distinctive round form.
• The orchards - apple country running up the valleys behind the town.

When to go

May to October for the mountain roads, and September and October for the apple harvest. Winter closes the higher villages and the road to Khinalug can be blocked by snow. Summer is much cooler here than in Baku.

Things to know

The town itself has little for visitors and is a base rather than a destination. Roads to the mountain villages are rough and some need a four-wheel drive. Carpet buying carries the same risks as anywhere: provenance claims are frequently unsupported.

Nearby

Krasnaya Sloboda is across the river, Khinalug is high in the mountains, and Laza is west towards Shahdag.

Key facts