1 DAY
- Meeting at the airport
- Transfer to the hotel
- Free time
2 DAY
08:00 – 09:00. Breakfast in hotel
09:30 – 11:00. Baku Sightseeing tour
Highland Park
Panoramic view of Baku Bay from the highest point of the city.
Flame Towers
National Flag Square
One of the highest flag of the world is Azerbaijani flag fluttering in the square of the National Flag in Baku. The height of the constructed pillar is 162, the diameter of the foundations is 3,2, the diameter of the top of the foundation is 1,09 meters. Total weight of the device is 220 tons. The width of the flag is 35 meter, the length is 70 meters, the total area is 2450 sq. meters, and the mass is approximately is 350 kg.
Seaside Park (Baku Boulevard)
“The Boulevard” is a promenade that runs parallel to Baku’s seafront. This area – popular for strolling and taking in views of the Caspian – was recently named a national park. Its history goes back more than 100 years, to a time when oil barons built their mansions along the Caspian shore and when the seafront was artificially built up inch by inch.
White City
For a long time this oil and industrial district of Baku was under the name of “Black City”. Nowadays a huge project is carried out with the aim to restore and develop the eastern part of the capital city (Black City), which covers an area of 221 hectares, in order to attract investments. The general plan of Baku White City envisages the creation of 10 universal urban areas.
Heydar Aliyev Center (outside)
The center of Heydar Aliyev is a cultural center built on Heydar Aliyev Avenue in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Center is a complex structure, which includes an auditorium (congress center), a museum, exhibition halls and administrative offices. It is named after the third president of Azerbaijan Republic – Heydar Aliyev. The project of the center was developed in 2007 by the architect Zaha Hadid. The cultural center of Heydar Aliyev is considered as one of the symbols of modern Baku.
In 2014 it was recognized as the best building in the world – the 2014 Design of the Year award.
11:00 – 13:30. Walking tour in Old City
Shirvanshahs` Palace
Palace of the Shirvanshahs is the biggest monument of the Shirvan-Absheron branch of the Azerbaijan architecture, situated in the Inner City of Baku. The complex contains the main building of the palace, Divanhane, the burialvaults, the shah’s mosque with a minaret, Seyid Yahya Bakuvi’s mausoleum, a portal in the east – Murad’s gate, a reservoir and the remnants of the bath-house
Maiden Tower
The Maiden Tower also known locally as Giz Galasi, located in the Old City, Baku, in Azerbaijan, was built in the 12th century as part of the walled city. Together with the Shirvanshahs’ Palace, dated to the 15th century, it forms an ensemble of historic monuments inscribed in 2001 under the UNESCO World Heritage List of Historical Monuments as cultural property, Category III.
Juma Mosque
Located in the historic Icheri Sheher, the mosque has been rebuilt several times. The present Friday Mosque was built in 1899 under the financing of Baku merchant Haji Shikhlali Dadashov. There are traces of a Zoroastrian temple at the site. A minaret, constructed in 1437, adjoins Friday Mosque.
Double Gates, Bazar Square, Caravan Saray and etc.
13:30 – 14:30. Dinner (for extra payment)
14:30-18:00. Excursion to Absheron Peninsula (Ateshgah, Gala, Yanardag)
Ateshgah Temple
The temple of fire worshippers Ateshgah is located at the Apsheron peninsula at the outskirts of Surakhani village in 30 km from the centre of Baku and was revered in different times by Zoroastrians, Hindus and Sikhs. 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. It was built by the Baku-based Hindu community related to Sikhs. Pentagonal complex has an open courtyard with templealtar in the center which was the place of pilgrimage for worshippers. By the decree of the President of Azerbaijan Ateshgah was declared a State historical-architectural reserve. This museum under the open sky was recently restored. Different workshops and souvenir galleries are located here now.
Gala Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum Complex
The Gala state archaeological and ethnographic museum complex is considered one of the most interesting tourist sites in Baku. One can see the burial mounds, tombs, houses, constructions, water storages, the ruins of an ancient castle, five mosques, three baths and others in the territory of this complex. All this was discovered on the Absheron Peninsula and related to the period from the third millennium BC to the twentieth century. The first archaeological and ethnographic complex in the open air was established in 2008 to preserve these monuments, as well as to replenish them as a result of the archaeological excavations in Absheron.
Yanardag (Burning Mountain)
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. Meterlong 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 its sight is most effective. Yanar Dag is located 25 km to the north from Baku. From the year 2007 Yanar Dag is declared a state-protected conservation area.
Free time
3 DAY
Breakfast in hotel
Departure from Baku, Baku-Shemakha-Lahij-Gabala trip
Shemakha
Shemakha is an ancient capital of Azerbaijan. It was founded in V century B.C. In IX—XVI centuries it was the capital of Shirvan khanate, residence of Shirvanshah’s and one of the most beautiful cities of the East. From the middle of XVIII century Shemakha was the center of Shemakha khanate.
Gulistan fortress, referred to the XI-XII centuries, is the main sightseeing of the city. The fortress was constructed with a defensive purpose. Another popular places of interests in Shamakhi are – Seven Domes (Yeddi Gumbez) Mausoleum, with numerous burials of Shemakha rulers, Juma Mosque (X century), the oldest mosque in the Caucasus and the Middle East after Derbent Juma mosque, ruins referred to the X-XVII centuries.
Nowadays, Shemakha is also considered as a winemaking & carpet weaving center. In addition to all the above, Shemakha is a literary city, which is the hometown of many Azerbaijani poets.
Lahij
High-altitude village Lahij, situated in Ismayilli Region, is an original monument of the ancient architecture. In this medieval town, well known not only in Caucasus, but all over the world, cobbled streets & ancient squares are preserved in their origin. Here you can find not only articles made of copper, leather and wood, used in household, but also peculiar samples of cold steel. Here you can find a lot of workshops, where hereditary blacksmiths are still creating household items. In addition to observing of the process, you can acquire just made good.
The village was found in III-IV B.C. Interesting fact, water and sewage system was constructed more than 1500 years ago, and no one of local citizens knows where it starts, where it ends & how it works. Nowadays town Lahij is an historical-architectural heritage, preserved by the government in its original form.
Qabala.
Qabala is a unique and beautiful region, located on the bank of Demiraparanchay River & overlooking the highest peak of Azerbaijan – Bazardyuzyu mountain (altitude 4466 m).
Modern infrastructure of hotels & resorts provides high level of services that will satisfy needs of worldly-wise tourists. Every summer Gabala hosts international festivals, which attract famous musicians, artists & art collectives from all over the world.
Optional places to visit:
- Gabala Historical Museum
- Ancient town Kabalaka
- Gabala Land Entertainment center
- Summer-Winter Touristic Complex Tufandag
- Ropeway
- Nij village, Albanian temple
- Gabala Shooting Center
- Nokhur Lake
- House-Museum of Ismail Kutkashenli
- “Seven Beauties” Waterfall
- Trip to the winery with degustation of local wines
Overnight in Qabala
4 DAY
Breakfast in hotel
Qabala-Nij-Sheki tour
Optional places to visit in Qabala:
- Gabala Historical Museum
- Ancient town Kabalaka
- Gabala Land Entertainment center
- Summer-Winter Touristic Complex Tufandag
- Ropeway
- Nij village, Albanian temple
- Gabala Shooting Center
- Nokhur Lake
- House-Museum of Ismail Kutkashenli
- “Seven Beauties” Waterfall
- Trip to the winery with degustation of local wines
Nij is a homeland to a specific ethnic group – Azerbaijani-Udi, who are considered as descendants of the Caucasian Albanians.
Overnight in Sheki
5 DAY
Breakfast in hotel
Sheki-Kish-Baku tour
Sheki
Sheki is an ancient historical city, located in the southern foothills of the Greater Caucasus, in 300 kilometers north-west from Baku.
Archaeological evidences suggest that Sheki could be considered as one of the oldest settlements in the Caucasus, many findings on its territory are dating back more than 2500 years old.
There are a lot of historical monuments, preserved in its original form. The main sightseeing of the city is majestic Sheki Khan’s Palace, with its magnificent wall paintings, constructed in XVIII century without using nails. Another popular places of interest are: Ancient Albanian temple situated in Kish settlement, not far from Sheki, Gelersen Gerersen fortress (VIII-IX centuries), numerous of caravanserais, house of Sheki Khans, Juma Mosque (XVIII centrury), minaret of the Gileili mosque (XVIII century), medieval baths, theater, historical museum, house-museum of the famous Azerbaijani writer M.F.Akhundov.
Arrival to Baku
Overnight in Baku
6 DAY
08:00 – 09:00. Breakfast in hotel
09:30 – 14:00. Gobustan tour
Gobustan or by other name Museum of Petroglyphsis (outdoor museum) located approximately 70 km from Baku. Prehistoric rock drawings – petroglyphs – are an art “archive” of the human evolution on Earth. The “articles” of such archives are the first transmissions from the human “I” to the outer world. There are a few of such outdoor “archives” in Azerbaijan. One of them, the largest, is located in Gobustan, at the Baku State Reserve of History, Ethnography and Arts, near Baku. It is a rocky massif on the bottom of the southeast part of the Great Caucasus Range, near the Caspian Sea and a modern highway built on the ancient Shirvan road. In mountains of Gobustan Beyukdash, Kichikdash, Djingirdag and Shighgaya there were concentrated witnesses of the past of azerbaijanian nation of the epoch of Stone Age and ongoing periods – rocky paintings, camp of man, tombstones and etc. The most significant of them are rocky pictures – petroglyphs, carved by primitive men on walls of caves, rocks and stony lumps. The aforesaid primitive monuments of art reflect culture, economy, world outlook, customs and traditions of ancient azerbaijanian peoples.
13:00 – 14:00. Dinner (for extra payment)
Free time
7 DAY
Breakfast in hotel
Check-out not later than 12:00
Transfer to the airport
English
