is Azerbaijan’s second city with a population of nearly 300,000. Modern Ganja has moved with the shifting course of the Ganja River. The original site is some 5km east of the present center. Archaeologists have found a few scrappy flint and mortar walls but most of the site is now on military land with little to see even if you are allowed in. City with a history that goes back to 494 BC (in 2015 Ganja celebrated 2509 anniversary).
City of the ancient culture Ganja has preserved the beautiful face of the city with many monuments of architecture.
Ganja is a mother land of the great poet Nizami. East of town is the 1991 Nizami Mausoleum a space shuttle-shaped tomb-tower flanked by a series of inspired sculptures depicting scenes from Nizami’s works. A vast aluminum smelter forms an incongruous backdrop. The soaring 22m-high structure is sombre and simple, but the marble on the walls is a thin veneer which doesn’t appear to be built to last. Behind the mausoleum, some scenes from Nizami dramas are depicted in metal reliefs with the jarring backdrop of a huge aluminum smelter. Driving along the main road through the underpass beneath the mausoleum don’t be alarmed if the car behind starts sounding his horn – some locals ‘hoot for Nizami’.
There are museum, art gallery, theater of poetry named after Nizami.
The vast, central Heydar Aliyev (former Lenin) Sq is lined by powerful Stalinist architecture, notably the arcade-fronted City Hall and the grand Hotel Ganca. Towards the square’s southern end the old hamam now hosts a small, rather tacky porcelain gallery near the twin-minaret 1620 Juma Mosque.
The central square has a rough patch of paving where a giant Lenin once stood. It is dominated by the Stalinist arches of the grand city administrative buildings built in 1948-9 by architects Ismailov and Leontieva. The Soviet insignia over the doors at each end have been painstakingly replaced with Azeri national symbols. The rest of the facade, however, retains good old communist-era motifs – tractors, helicopters, bridges and industrial scenes topped off with flag designs/
The 17th-century Abbas (Juma) Mosque in the central square is a modest brick affair with two minarets but has an attractive domed interior. Outside an ancient hollow Chinar tree is bricked up for support. A former mosque behind the historical museum is now used as a gallery.
From here you could stroll Javadkhan str, the city center’s almost-quaint pedestrian lane, or explore some appealing patches of wooded parkland that twinkle at night with (male-dominated) chaykhanas.
The Bottle House is one of Ganja’s more off-beat attractions. More impressive than its more famous relative in Rhyanon, Nevada, it’s the work of Ibragim Jaffarov who used 48,000 glass bottles to decorate an existing two-storey home. Though the use of bottles was purely aesthetic, the pictures on the gables commemorate Ibragim’s brother Yusif (the portrait that looks like Mao). Yusif never returned from WWII. He didn’t die as the family received a mysterious letter from him in 1957 but have received no word since. The prominently painted word ‘†¤Ґ¬’ (Zhdem) means ‘we wait for you’. Visitors are encouraged to buy something from the motley selection of overpriced gum, beer and Snickers bars sold from the porch of the house by Ibragim’s son to finance the house’s much-needed renovation.
The History Museum (Tue Sun, 11-17:00) is housed in the former mansion of the Zhiadkhanov brothers who were among the founders of the 1918 Democratic Republic. Exhibits include a model of how the ancient city may once have looked plus all the usual photos, mammoth bones and Kupe amphorae. In the garden behind are a selection of old stone rams and horses and to the side a renovation workshop.
The 1918 Parliament convened initially in the building that’s now the Agricultural Academy (closed to the public). Across the road is the Academy Museum (Akademiyanin Muzeyi) which formed the parliamentary annex at the same time. While there’s some duplication with the History Museum, this is a brighter more interesting version thanks in part to the old bronze and white-tiled fire places and the overpoweringly gaudy Nizami room painted by Rustam Guseinguliev with scenes from Khamza and multilingual translations of Nizami’s aphorisms. Entry is free.
Though quite large, the supposedly 17th-century brick caravanserai is relatively unspectacular, though there’s added interest from souvenir and art shops plus a small gallery set into the facade. The inner courtyard is graced by a massive plane tree, but is part of the Ganja State Humanitarian College and not officially open to the public.
This area has a rich natural, cultural and historical heritage. There are a lot of forests, vineyards, lakes, rivers and mountains. The area is famous for many mineral springs and unique medicinal oil – naphthalan. This natural substance is used as the most effective drug for the treatment of dermatological, rheumatic and neurological diseases. The Ganja sanatorium “Naftalan” is located in the heart of the ancient capital of Azerbaijan.
This region is famous by its Goygol reserve which is the first reserve in Azerbaijan. A large mountain lake Goygol surrounded by the mountains of the Lesser Caucasus was formed at the result of devastating earthquake that destroyed the mountain Kapaz (XII century). The waters of the lake which is located at 1,600 meters above sea level in the picturesque ravine of Agsu river look like a large aquarium with beautiful fish fauna. Here for example lives a rare lake trout. The color and water clarity are striking: it is the purest of many mountain water basins in Caucasus. The lake is about 2,5 km long and 600 m wide and 93 m depth. It freezes from January to March. Steep banks of Goygol are covered with dense oak and hornbeam forests. There are fruit trees such an apple, pear, cherry and plum too. In the rainy season on the shores of the lake you can pick mushrooms and berries. There are deer, wild boars, bears, wolves, lynx and many other species of animals in the forest. This area is ideal for swimming, walking, travelling, family picnics.
