Handpicked experience · Baku
Baku, AzerbaijanInstant Confirmation
Shamakhi was levelled by earthquakes five times over; the 1859 one moved the provincial capital to Baku, which is why the oil city is where it is.
A mausoleum growing out of a cliff face
A place of worship in continuous use since the eighth century
The fault line that decided where the capital would be
A village street of working metal workshops
Medieval drainage beneath the cobbles
A door-to-door arrangement at both ends of the day
A day of ten to eleven hours inland from Baku to Shamakhi for the Juma Mosque and the cliff-set mausoleum at Diri Baba, then over to the coppersmiths' town of Lahij, with hotel pickup at both ends.
This town sits on an active fault, and its history is a list of the times the ground moved.
It was the seat of the Shirvanshahs, the rulers of this region for centuries, and one of the great stops on the silk route through the Caucasus. It was also destroyed by earthquakes in 1667, again two years later, then in 1828, in 1859 and once more in 1902 — and those are only the ones that levelled it rather than merely damaging it.
Each time it was rebuilt, and each time the fault was still there.
The 1859 earthquake was the one that settled the argument. The administration of the province, which had sat at Shamakhi, moved to Baku and never came back.
So the oil city you set out from this morning owes part of its rise to a town that kept collapsing eighty kilometres inland. Everything on that peninsula — the wells, the mansions, the towers — was built on ground that had the single advantage of holding still.
The Juma Mosque was founded in the eighth century, which makes the site one of the oldest places of Muslim worship in the whole Caucasus.
Almost none of what stands there now is that old. The building has been thrown down and put back up repeatedly — by earthquakes, by fire, and by war — and the structure you will walk into is essentially a modern reconstruction on an ancient footprint, finished in recent years.
That is worth knowing rather than discovering. The antiquity here is the site and the continuity of use, not the stones.
The mausoleum at the first stop is a two-storey building from the fifteenth century, built into a recess in a rock face so that the cliff forms its back wall.
It takes twenty minutes, and it is one of the most photographed buildings in the country: nobody expects a domed stone building to grow out of a cliff.
The second half of the day is a mountain village whose main street is lined with workshops, and where the coppersmiths are still working rather than performing.
Look down as well as in. Beneath the cobbles there is a drainage and sewerage system laid centuries ago, which is a remarkable thing for a village this size and this remote, and a reminder that it was once a wealthy place on a trade route rather than a picturesque one at the end of a road.
Ten to eleven hours, with a long stretch of mountain road between the halves, narrow in sections.
No meals are included; eating is your own arrangement along the way.
Both the mosque and the mausoleum are working religious sites. Dress modestly, cover shoulders and knees, and expect to remove your shoes.
Lahij's main street is cobbled and uneven, and the village sits high enough to be noticeably cooler than the coast.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
It sits directly on an active fault, and always has.
At least five times by major earthquakes, not counting the ones that only damaged it.
The seat of the region's rulers for centuries and a major stop on the silk route through the Caucasus.
The provincial administration moved permanently to the coast, and never returned inland.
In large part. The coastal site's decisive advantage was that the ground there stayed still.
Eighth century, making the site among the oldest Muslim places of worship in the whole region.
No. It has been destroyed and rebuilt repeatedly, and what stands now is a recent reconstruction on the old footprint.
Its back wall is the mountain. The builders used a natural recess instead of raising four sides of their own.