Secrets
of Ancient Crafts
Tour Duration 7 nights / 8 days
Regions: Baku -Shamakhy-Lagich-Absheron
1 Day
Meeting at the airport.
Accommodation at the hotel 4 * in the city
19:00. Excursion. "Lights of the Evening Baku".
Tour "Lights of Evening
Baku" begins with a visit to Mountain Park. It is here that the "City
of Winds", as Baku is often called, opens to you in all its glory. The
observation platform located on the highest part of the city, near the
"Burning Flame Tower" shows the city with all its bright lights
bordering Baku Bay reflecting the measured pace of life in the evening Baku.
Further, we continue our excursion to one of the favourite places of the walk
of the Baku guests of the city of all ages and social groups, a place where no
one is in a hurry in the evening - "Baku Boulevard". The national
park, sometimes called the "diamond necklace of Baku", stretches along Baku Bay for 16 km. At each time of
the day the boulevard has its charm - in the morning you can walk in silence,
feel unity with nature, go in for sports, during the day, especially on
weekends, the boulevard is fully revived thanks to the small inhabitants of the
capital, riding on attractions, rollerblades and bicycles, in the evening it
turns in the magical world of dreams for all lovers. In addition, the original
illumination and illumination of the park, fountains and other innovations give
our boulevard a special charm. At the end of our excursion "Lights of
Evening Baku», we will go to the most lively and central street of the city of
Nizami "Torgovaya street" as it is also called from the old times.
Trading is the longest of Baku's streets (its length reaches 3.5 km). It is
also called the most beautiful street in Baku - it has a large number of
architectural monuments, beautiful houses, cinemas, parks, many modern
boutiques and shops.
Transfer to the hotel and free time
Overnight at the hotel.
2 Day
09:00 Breakfast at the hotel.
Excursion.
"Baku City Tour".
The tour begins with a visit to one of the modern and most recognizable places of the "Heydar Aliyev Center". The center of Heydar Aliyev is a cultural center, which is a complex building, which includes an auditorium (congress center), a museum, exhibition halls, administrative offices. The famous architect Zaha Hadid designed the project of the centre. Baku is a city that combines modern and ancient, traditional and unusual. This applies to the religions represented here and our next attraction is the church of the "Holy Wives of the Myrrhbearers". In the Soviet period, the temple was closed one of the first in 1920. First, there was a warehouse in it, and then a gym. In the days of the January events of 1990, two shells hit the bell tower of the temple, due to which it was partially destroyed, the floor sagged, the walls cracked, and the roof collapsed. In 1991, the dilapidated building of the church was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church. On May 27, 2001, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia made a great consecration of the Holy Mother of God Church and conferred on him the status of a cathedral of the diocese. After inspecting the temple, we are on our way to the Nagorny Park. It is here that the "City of Winds", as Baku is often called, opens to you in all its glory. The observation platform located on the highest part of the city, near the sleeping "The Languages of Flame" shows the city with all its beauties and greenery bordering Baku Bay. After viewing the observation deck, we go down the stairs and head towards the "Bibi Abyat Mosque". Bibi-Heybat Mosque (Azerbaijan's Bibiheybət məscidi) is a mosque located on the shore of Baku Bay, in Azerbaijan. The existing structure, built in the 1990s, is a reconstruction of the mosque of the same name, built in the 13th century by Shirvanshah Abu-l-Fath Farrukhzad and destroyed by the Bolsheviks in 1936, when a fierce struggle with religion was going on throughout the territory of the USSR. The Bibi-Eybat complex, in addition to the mosque, includes tombs and tombs of revered people (including the grave of Ukeima Khanum, the descendant of the Prophet Muhammad), as before destruction, and today is a spiritual center for Muslims of the East and one of the significant monuments of Islamic architecture of Azerbaijan. The mosque was once visited by Abaskuli-aga Bakikhanov, Alexander Dumas, Khurshudbanu Natavan. The local population in the past called it "the mosque of Fatima". Using the same name, described the mosque and visited it in the 40 years of the XIX century, Alexander Dumas. At the end of the modern Baku tour we visit the world's first oil well drilled in the Bibi-eibat oil-bearing region.
Visit
to the old town of Icheri Sheher
Very often Icheri Sheher is called a fortress, as a well-preserved fortress
wall surrounds it. People in the territory of Icheri Sheher lived in the Bronze
Age, and by the 8th-11th centuries, it was completely populated. Behind the
walls, there are many unique monuments: the palace complex of the Shirvanshahs
with a burial vault, a sofa, a mosque; "Gyz Galasy" ("The
Maiden's Tower"); mosques and minarets, the remains of caravanserais,
baths. Buildings of the old fortress are of a special nature. Because of the
lack of the territory of the building, the wall to the wall was erected here
from ancient times. There are no gardens, the yards are extremely small and
separated by "threads" of narrow streets, lanes and dead ends. When
the Shirvanshahs moved their capital from Shemakha to Baku in the 15th century,
massive buildings began in Icheri Sheher. During this period the pearl of the
fortress was Built - the Palace of the
Shirvanshahs. It should be noted that Baku XVII-XIX centuries did not go beyond
the boundaries of Icheri Sheher. Here were located the palaces of the rulers,
and residential quarters. From 1747 to 1806, there was the capital of the Baku
Khanate. Only after the beginning of the oil boom, the city began to expand and
goes beyond the boundaries of Icheri Sheher.
The fortress wall itself is of interest. Once Baku had two of them, and they
were separated by moats, but at the beginning of the XIX century, the city grew
so fast that it was necessary to demolish and build the outer wall. Remained
only the inner wall. It has 25 towers and 5 gates. They say that back in the
30s. Twentieth century in the fortress there were more than 900 buildings, and
by the beginning of the XXI century only half remained.
Free time
Overnight at the hotel.
3 Day
09:00 Breakfast at the hotel.
Excursion.
"Shemakha + Lagich".
Shamakhi is an ancient Azerbaijani city.
Originated in the 5th century. BC. e. In the IX-XVI centuries. - the capital of
the Shirvan kingdom, the residence of the Shirvanshahs is one of the most
beautiful cities of the East. From the middle of the XVIII century - the center
of Shemakhan khanate. For
a long time, Shemakha was one of the most important points throughout the Great
Silk Road. This is due to the fact that the city for a long time was one of the
centers of the Shirvan-Apheron architectural school and the school of
decorative and applied art (carpet making) and miniatures.Located at the
intersection of caravan routes, Shemakha was one of the major trade and craft
centers in the Middle East, occupying an important place in the trade in silk,
as early as the 16th century trade ties between Shemakha and Venetian merchants
were mentioned. In Shemakha, Azerbaijani, Iranian, Arab, Central Asian,
Russian, Indian and West European merchants were trading, who owned factories
there, had numerous silk-weaving, paper-spinning and carpet workshops. The city
became famous as the home of many prominent Azerbaijani philosophers,
architects and scientists, and poets such as Khagani, Nasimi,Sabir. Famous
sights of Shemakha. Diri-Baba.
Diri Baba is a unique monument, a two-story mosque-mausoleum of the 15th
century, located on the road from Baku to Shemakha in the village of Maraza
opposite the old cemetery. For a long time, local residents believed that this
place was buried and remained an imperishable saint named Diri-Baba. However,
this monument is associated with many legends and mystical details. Therefore,
since the 17th century, it began to attract many pilgrims and ordinary
travelers. The peculiarity of the structure is that the architect, as it were,
"built" the tomb in the rock, and it seems as if it is kept "on
weight", torn from the ground. The tomb admires the strictness of
architecture, the purity of the lines, and against the background of
irregularities of the dark rock the light and smooth surface of its walls,
standing out, seems solemn. Juma
mosque. This Azerbaijani mosque is the oldest and
largest in the Caucasus. According to legend, it was founded in the 8th
century, when Shemakha was chosen as a residence by the Arab caliph. The exact
date of its construction is 744, which was established as a result of research
conducted by the geological commission arrived from Tiflis, headed by Prince
Shakuli Kajar. This date was determined by the Arabic inscription on the facade
of the Juma mosque, which indicates the 126th year of the Muslim calendar as
the date of foundation. It was at this time that construction of new religious
buildings (mosques) began in the territory of modern Azerbaijan. The Juma
mosque in Shemakha is the earliest mosque in the Caucasus after the Derbent
Cathedral Friday Mosque, built in 734Yeddi Gumbes. The
mausoleum of Yeddi Gumbes or the "Seven domes", the appearance of
which dates back to the 15th century, is located at the foot of the fortress of
Gyulistan. This is the name of the Shirvan rulers' tomb in Shamakhi. Here noble
representatives from the Shirvanshah dynasty are buried. Seven domes - that's
how many tombstones are in the crypt. At present, they represent dilapidated
stone domes, as if grown directly from under the earth in the middle of a
deserted cemetery district. That's why the very atmosphere of this place seems
fabulously mysterious.
Lagich. Lahic
is a village named after the name of the lagic tribe that came here in the 4th
- 5th centuries from the territory of Iran. This historical and architectural
monument was built in the 5th century on the territory of the canyon of the
river Girdimanchai. Old mosques and baths, medieval water supply and sewerage
system are preserved here.
Despite the fact that the village is declared a
historical and cultural reserve, the local population is still living here,
mainly engaged in handicrafts: the manufacture of elegant household items made
of copper (kazan, trays, jugs), leather, carpet weaving and agriculture. From
time immemorial, the Lahic tribe traded with its products, which became known
throughout the Middle East. And today in special workshops and souvenir shops
visiting tourists can buy a variety of handmade products: carpets, dishes, daggers
and much more.
Overnight in Guest House in Lagich.
4 Day
09:00
Breakfast at the hotel.
Transfer
to Baku
Free
Time
Overnight
in Baku
5
Day
09:00 Breakfast at the hotel.
Excursion
"Ethnographic Museum Gala".
Forty kilometres from Baku, there is Gala, the
well-known open-air historical and ethnographic museum. The museum, founded in
2008 at an archaeological site located in the same-name village, is dedicated
to the history of the Absheron Peninsula. There, you can see how the
Azerbaijani lived, what they ate and drank and how they managed a household
over the period from the XVI to XIX centuries. The territory of 1.2 ha hosts
old-time houses – portable tents made of animal skins, subsequently replaced by
stone and beaten cobworks with cupolas, an ancient blacksmith shop, market,
pottery, bakery, threshing mill and other interesting medieval buildings. You
can see, touch, and take picture of all of them. You can even try to bake bread
in a common oven, weave a carpet, muddy in pottery or feed camels, horses and
donkeys, peacefully resting in their stalls. Many monuments and
exhibits were brought to the Gala Museum from different corners of the Absheron
Peninsula; they were renovated or fully reconstructed. All together, they help
to get an idea of the life of the medieval people in Azerbaijan.
Free time
Overnight in hotel
6
Day
09:00 Breakfast at the hotel.
Excursion.
"Fire worships Temple Ateshgyah + Burning Mountain Yanardagh".
The Temple of Eternal Fire - Ateshgyah - is an authentic Azerbaijani exotic. It is well-known practically all over the world. It is located 30 km from the center of Baku in the suburb of Surakhany. This territory is known for such unique natural phenomenon as burning natural gas outlets (underground gas coming onto surface contacts oxygen and lights up). The temple in its present state was constructed in the 17th-18th centuries. The Baku-based Hindu community related to Sikhs built it. However, the history of the Temple is even longer. From times immemorial, this was the holy place of Zoroastrians- fire worshippers (approximately beginning of our era). They attributed mystical significance to the inextinguishable fire and came there to worship the relic. After the introduction of Islam Zoroastrian temple was destroyed. Many Zoroastrians left to India and there continued their worship. But in the 15th -17th centuries the Hindus-fire worshippers who came to Absheron with trading caravans began to make pilgrimages to Surakhany. The Indian merchants started erection of the temple. The earliest temple part is dated 1713. The latest - the central temple-altar was built with the support of merchant Kanchangar in 1810. During the 18th century chapels, cells, a caravanserai were added to the central part of the temple. On у can find carved inscriptions in Indian lettering there.
In the early 19th century the Temple acquired its present-day appearance. Ateshgah is a pentagonal structure with a castellation and entrance portal. In the center of a yard the altar-sanctuary executed in the form of a stone bower on which angles some more centers are located towers. In the center of an altar - a well from which beat "eternally" burning gas.
Burning
Mountain Yanardagh
One of the most famous and popular tourist places of the "eternal flame” in Azerbaijan is the mountain of Yanar Dag. Actually, it is rather a hill than a mountain, with natural gas burning on its slope from ancient times. Meter-long tongues of fire are licking the stratified earth approximately for 10 m in width, searing those who approached too close. People occupy the benches to watch the blazing hill in the evening, when the its sight is most effective. Yanar Dag is located 25 km to the north from Baku, in Mehemmedi village. There are buses running to it from the city, so you can get there fairly cheap and easy. From the year 2007, Yanar Dag is declared a state-protected conservation area.
Free Time
7
Day
09:00 Breakfast at the hotel.
Excursion "Carpet Museum".
In the carpet museum there are various schools and carpet making techniques from all over the republic, covering different stages of the history of the development of this art. Among the exhibits it is possible to note especially the flap of the Tabriz carpet "Ovchulug" and the Karabakh "Dragon carpet", both woven in the XVII century, as well as the carpet "Hila Afshan" of the XVIII century from the village of Gil. The staff of the museum conducts enormous work aimed at preserving and popularizing this cultural heritage. Various seminars, exhibitions and symposia are organized, including under the auspices of UNESCO. In the summer of 2014, the museum exhibits found their new building - a palace in the form of a folded carpet. The architects of the project were famous European experts Frans Jans and Valter Marie. The exposition of the museum has been exhibited in more than 50 countries, almost on all continents of the world. Today the museum is a large scientific center that attracts researchers and connoisseurs of applied art from all over the world.
Free time to visit the eastern market, shops
with sweets and souvenir shops.
Overnight in hotel
8 Day
09:00 Breakfast at the hotel.
Free time to visit the eastern market, shops with sweets and souvenir shops.
Transfer to the airport
Visa upon arrival at international airports of Azerbaijan can be obtained only
by citizens of Turkey, Israel, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait,
Japan, China, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. For citizens of Russia and
the CIS (except for Turkmenistan), a visa is not required to Azerbaijan.
Citizens of other countries must obtain a visa prior to arrival, through the
consulates of Azerbaijan in their country or to issue an electronic visa
through our travel agency. To apply for a visa, contact our managers at least 4
weeks before arriving in Azerbaijan.
Local currency: Manat
The recommended currency for the exchange is: USD or EURO.
Where to exchange currency: Upon arrival at the airport, the guide will provide
accurate information on where and how to exchange cash for local currency.
Availability of ATM: Only in large cities.
Accept credit cards: Only in large cities.
The cost of the tour from 695
USD per person for a stay in Double room includes:
Accommodation in hotel 3
* double room on the program based on breakfast & 4 lunches.
Transfers and transportation according to the program.
Excursions on the program.
Services of a Russian-speaking or English-speaking guide.
Entrance tickets to museums.
Additional paid:
Lunch - from 15 USD (soft drinks included)
Dinner - from 20 USD (soft drinks are included)
Supplement for single accommodation: $ 199 per tour
The cost of a visa is 40 USD (if not citizens of the CIS),
Charges for photo - and video shooting in museums
The firm reserves the right to change the
order of visiting excursion objects, keeping the program as a whole. The
company reserves the right to change the cost of the tour provided that it is
notified in time.
Dear guests, please send inquiries for individual tourists and tourist groups
to e-mail: narmintour@gmail.com
, zaurnasibli@gmail.com and contact us at +99412 4926116, +99450 5968477 Whatsapp: +99450 5895997