Itinerary

1. Day 01: Arrival, Burning Mountain Yanardagh and Baku Evening Tour

   Meeting at the airport.

   Accommodation at the hotel 4* in the city.

   • 18:00. Excursion. Burning Mountain Yanardagh
     • One of the most famous and popular tourist places of the "eternal flame” in Azerbaijan is the mountain of Yanar Dag. It is instead 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 10 m wide, searing those approaching 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 north of Baku, in Mehemmedi village. Buses run to it from the city so that you can get there reasonably cheaply and easily. Since 2007, Yanar Dag has been declared a state-protected conservation area.
   • Excursion. "Lights of the Evening Baku".
     • The tour of "Lights of Evening Baku" begins with a visit to Mountain Park. Here, 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 for the walk of 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, and go in for sports. During the day, especially on weekends, the boulevard is fully revived thanks to the tiny inhabitants of the capital, who ride on attractions, rollerblades, and bicycles. In the evening, it becomes all lovers' magical world of dreams. In addition, the original illumination and illumination of the park, fountains and other innovations give our boulevard a unique charm. 
     • At the end of our excursion, "Lights of Evening Baku», we will go to the most lively and central street of Nizami ", Torgovaya Street", also called from the old times. Trading is the longest part of Baku's streets (3.5 km). It is also called the most beautiful street in Baku - it has many architectural monuments, beautiful houses, cinemas, parks, and many modern boutiques and shops.
   • Transfer to the hotel and free time.

   Overnight at the hotel.

2. Day 02: Baku City Tour

   09:00 Breakfast at the hotel.

   • 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, a complex building with an auditorium (congress center), a museum, exhibition halls, and administrative offices. The famous architect Zaha Hadid designed the centre project. Baku is a city that combines modern and ancient, traditional and unusual. 
   • After inspecting the center, we will go to Nagorny Park. Here, 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, which has 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, and Khurshudbanu Natavan. The local population in the past called it "the mosque of Fatima". Using the same name, Alexander Dumas described the mosque and visited it in the 40 years of the XIX century. 
   • 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.
     • Icheri Sheher is often 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 entirely 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. The buildings of the old fortress are of a unique nature. Because of the lack of territory in the building, the wall to the wall was erected here from ancient times. There are no gardens; the yards are tiny 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 the Baku XVII-XIX centuries did not go beyond the boundaries of Icheri Sheher. The palaces of the rulers and residential quarters were located here. From 1747 to 1806, there was the capital of the Baku Khanate. Only after the beginning of the oil boom did the city expand and go beyond the boundaries of Icheri Sheher. The fortress wall itself is of interest. Once, Baku had two of them, and moats separated them, 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 five gates. They say that back in the 30s. In the twentieth century, there were more than 900 buildings in the fortress, and by the beginning of the 20th century, only half remained.

   Free time

   Overnight at the hotel.

3. Day 03: Excursion. "Fire worships Temple Ateshgyah +"Ethnographic Museum Gala".

   09:00 Breakfast at the hotel.

   • 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 phenomena as burning natural gas outlets (underground gas coming onto the 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 immemorial, this was the holy place of Zoroastrians- fire worshippers (approximately the beginning of our era). They attributed mystical significance to the inextinguishable fire and came there to worship the relic. After the introduction of Islam, the Zoroastrian temple was destroyed. Many Zoroastrians left for India, and they 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 the 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, and a caravanserai were added to the central part of the temple. On у, you 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 is executed as a stone pavilion on which towers some more centres are located. In the center of an altar - a well from which beat "eternally" burning gas.
   • Excursion "Ethnographic Museum Gala".
     • There is Gala, the well-known open-air historical and ethnographic museum, forty kilometres from Baku. The museum, founded in 2008 at an archaeological site 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 their households from the XVI to XIX centuries. The territory of 1.2 ha hosts old-time houses – portable tents made of animal skins, 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 pictures of all of them. You can even try to bake bread in an ordinary oven, weave a carpet, muddy it in pottery, or feed camels, horses, and donkeys peacefully while 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

4. Day 04: Excursion. "The secrets of the Kingdom of Shabran."

   08:00 Breakfast at the hotel.

   • 08:30: Excursion to Shabran.
     • The Red Mountains are a psychedelic, red-pink and white-striped area of exposed rock in the Northwest of Azerbaijan. Iron in the ground gives the mountains their deep red colour, and powdery shale makes up the white parts. Through a geological process, they’ve mixed underground, layer on top of layer, and when exposed to the elements, they eroded into a beautiful, utterly bizarre sight. Despite being such a striking natural wonder, almost no one visits them. Though there are a few small trails to be found, the entire area is yours to play around in. If you are willing to hike away from the road, you are rewarded with crazy-looking patterns that stretch for miles. Climb over whatever you want, take as many pictures as possible and explore all the tiny crevices in between. Though the main area exists just off the road, plenty of other candy-striped areas are in the surrounding valleys. Occasionally, in the rocks, one can see the fossilized remains of belemnites, a type of ancient squid. Unlike modern squids, this one contained a skeleton, most notably its bony rostrum, a hard protrusion on the opposite end from their tentacles. A similar geological phenomenon is believed to happen only in one more place on the planet: the Death Valley in the United States. The formations take their colour from groundwater with oxidized iron within the rock.
   • Beshbarmag on the route. 
     • Here is one of the leading natural attractions of the area – the legendary mountain Beshbarmag. Named so because of its unusual shape, resembling a stone hand menacingly raised over the ancient caravan route. At the top among the teeth of the rocks are the ruins of the sanctuary “Hyzirzinde” (eternally living Hizir). Any traveller knows this place because it can’t be avoided while driving on the road leading from the capital to the north. Tourists enjoy admiring the forbidding rock. You can exit the car, warm up after a long journey, drink tea, eat barbeque or boiled corn in season. Those interested can visit the mosque here. There are many historical monuments in the area. Beshbarmag Tower, built in the middle of the VIII century, is located far from the center of the district.
   • Excursion to Chirag Gala Castle
     • Chirag Gala (“Lamp Castle”), a castle from the 4th-5th century, is located 100 km north of Baku on top of a mountain. Chirag Gala was built over a seam of oil and gas, which allowed for lighting up signal fires visible to a distance of several dozens of kilometres. Similar castles and towers were located all over the area from Derbent to Baku, providing a warning system against enemy invasions. Today, under the castle, the “Galaalty” urology treatment center is located, and its thermal water has a curative effect on diseases of the kidneys, urinary tract, and digestive organs.

   Arriving in Gusar

   Overnight in hotel

5. Day 05: Excursion. "Glorious Guba Khanate".

   08:00 Breakfast at the hotel.

   • 08:30: Guba Excursion
     • Guba district has long gained popularity among tourists due to its proximity to the capital of Azerbaijan. In Guba, the symbol is the rosy apple, beautiful nature, many historical sights and a carefully protected cultural heritage. Guba carpet weaving school is known all over the world, and the hospitality of the locals is famous throughout the country.
     • The region, visited by French writer Alexandre Dumas and Norwegian scientist Thor Heyerdahl, is ready to share his secrets with curious travellers.
   • Walk along the arched bridge.
     • The only surviving bridge, the Gudyalchay Bridge, is one of the seven that existed in the Guba district in the 17-19 centuries. This longest bridge was built in 1894 by the Alexander III project to strengthen Russia's military presence in the Caucasus. Fourteen of its spans, with a total length of 275 meters and a width of 8 m, are made of baked bricks. The multi-span construction allows the bridge to remain intact even during heavy mudflows and floods that raise the water level in the river. A bridge of similar construction built in the 19th century is the only one in Azerbaijan.
   • Visiting Krasnaya Sloboda village
     • This village is a place of compact residence for Jews in Azerbaijan. The inhabitants of the Krasnaya Sloboda (Red Sloboda) village are mountain Jews who call themselves “Dzhugur”. They speak Hebrew but also know Azerbaijani and Russian. Currently, about 4-5 thousand people live here.  The inhabitants of the Red Sloboda are engaged mainly in trade. The local population loves pomp; in this wealthy settlement, you can see many fashionable mansions.
   • Admire the Juma Mosque
     • In the center of the city, near the central park, there is one of the oldest mosques in the city - the Juma Mosque (Friday Mosque), built at the very beginning of the 19th century. Featuring a rich architectural style, the mosque was built of red brick in 1802 with the financial support of Haji Ismail Efendi. The architecture of this religious building is typical only for the mosques of the Guba province. Juma Mosque is one of the oldest religious centres not only in Guba but also in all of northeastern Azerbaijan. Get acquainted with the historic bath. The baths in Azerbaijan occupied a special place in people's lives, a favourite place for the enjoyment of body and spirit. The Guba bathhouse, built of red brick in the 18th century, is crowned by a large dome, which allows the room to maintain the desired temperature and humidity. This quadrangular structure is also called Suhur (Chukhur) hamam, i.e., a bath built of remarkable rocks. The bath has six compartments, two doors and six windows. At one time, the French writer Alexander Dumas bathed in this bath, and 150 years later, his great-grandson visited these places. Until 1985, the bath was used for its intended purpose, but now, this pearl of Oriental architecture is protected as a historical monument.
   • Gachresh Forests
     • This is the most popular recreation area in the Guba district, located 25 km from the district center. Gachrash means come and sit down. This toponym is “a place where sunlight does not fall”. In this vast area, trees grow so densely that the sun's rays do not reach the ground, and in summer, it is pretty cool here. In winter, these places are covered with a thick layer of snow.
     • Once the center of tourist attraction was the suspension bridge located here - Asma Korpu, across the Gudyalchay River- which is now destroyed, but there is hope for its speedy restoration.
     • On the very outskirts of the territory of Gachrash, there is a natural formation called the Minara - in the form of the natural minaret. The length of this natural monument is 30-35 m, width 4-5 m, and height 3-4 m. It is assumed to be formed in the 4th century due to tectonic movements and river erosion. The Minara also plays the role of a natural bridge at a height of 10-15 m. The small cave between the rocks is called the “fridge”. Indeed, it is so cold here that the owners of a nearby restaurant attached doors to the entrance, hung the lock and used the resulting room as a refrigerator.
   • Visit the ancient Khinaligh village.
     • On the territory of Guba, 65 km from the district center, at an altitude of 2500 m above sea level, it is located in the unique village of Khinaligh. It has about 380 houses and 3,000 inhabitants. The village's population is a separate ethnographic group and speaks its language, which no one else speaks. Together with the language, the Khinaligans also retained their ancient customs.
     • There are always a lot of foreigners here - travellers and scientists who study the unique way of life and traditions of the original nationality.

   Arriving in Gusar

   Overnight in hotel

6. Day 06: Excursion to the "Shahdag - land of the giants".

   08:00 Breakfast at the hotel

   The northern part of Azerbaijan consists of hundreds of square kilometres of stone, forests, alpine meadows and snow-capped peaks. Unsurprisingly, there are several national parks in this part of the country. Shahdag National Park is perhaps one of the most beautiful places in Azerbaijan. It lies on the southern slopes of the Greater Caucasus and covers an area of more than 130,000 hectares. This is the largest national park in the republic and is located on the territory of six administrative regions of Azerbaijan. The picturesque landscapes of this region lie in several climatic zones that stretch across steppes, forests and alpine meadows. All of Azerbaijan's highest peaks are on the territory of the National Park, including Shahdag, which gave the park its name.

   • Excursion to the village of Laza
     • The main attraction of the village is a mosque from the late 18th century and the sacred place "Haji Be Baba's Feast". Locals worship sacred graves near the festival. About 100 years ago, this festival was located on a rock in the center of the village, and then it was moved to the rock wall on the edge of the village next to the sacred old cemetery. Below the village, on the slope of the river Gusar Chai, there is an ancient cemetery, according to the inhabitants. A gravestone with inscriptions divided into two halves was kept in Arabic. Part of the cemetery is washed out by rain and mud.
   • The following excursion destinations are located nearby:
     • Czar's Cave (deep, rocky fault in the steep wall of the Shahdag Massif, up to 800 m long);
     • the old stone bridge "Hounds-Müh" over the river Gusar-Tee
     • a holy place (feast) at the foot of the lobby of the Shahdag Massif
     • Waterfalls on the way to the summit of Shahdag (in winter, they turn into picturesque icefalls)
   • On the opposite slope of the Gusar Chay River, opposite the village on a high, steep hill, are the remains of the walls of an ancient defensive fortress where the villagers hid during raids and wars. The village inhabitants observe their ancient rites at weddings or other celebrations. Weddings are held separately for men and women, accompanied by national music, when it is possible to invite musicians from neighbouring villages or the district center. If not possible, use audio recordings of national lezgi tunes. Weddings occur in the groom's court for men and in the bride's home for women. Arts and crafts remained partially preserved. One of the most common crafts for Lezgins is the weaving of carpets. Sumacs (rugs) are made without rugs with a smooth front and a shaggy inside.
   • You can enjoy the national cuisine. Cakes (Tskan) are baked with meat and potatoes during the celebrations. In everyday life, they eat kutab with vegetables, meat and tripe. In ovens tenders, bread is baked (Hizanfu, Caravatfu).

   Return to Baku

   Overnight at a hotel in Baku.

7. Day 07: Departure

   • 09:00 Breakfast at the hotel.
   • Free time to visit the eastern market, shops with sweets and souvenir shops.
   • Transfer to the airport