Sheki tour with overnight

Sheki tour with overnight

Sheki is one of the most ancient cities of Azerbaijan. Sheki attracts the guests with its unique climate, nature, specific cuisine and sweeties. With the help of the professional guide you will be able to discover the most important historical sides of Sheki. During the tour you will be informed about the history of the city and all the major information about touristic sites.

Sheki is located in north west part of Azerbaijan, and the distance from Baku is about 300 km ( 4.5 hours). Considering the distance of the city, the tour is planned with overnight.

The tour starts at 09:00 after picking up the guest from the hotel. 

Itinerary:

Stop at: Diri Baba holy place

Stop at: Palace of Sheki Khans -This ornate 1762 palace build­ing features vivid murals and dazzling coloured light streaming through Shabaka(stained-glass) windows making it Sheki’s foremost ‘sight’ and one of the South Cauca­sus’ most iconic buildings. It was originally the Sheki Khan’s administrative building, just one of around 40 now-lost royal structures within the fortress compound. 

Stop at: Karavansaray - Swift development of trade in the Middle Ages enhanced importance of caravanserai existing in the territory of Azerbaijan at that time and favored construction of new ones. Generally, caravanserai was built in form of castles with one gate, closing of which made them impregnable during dangerous incidents. “Caravanserai” historical complex in Sheki is two magnificent caravanserais which reached present days and traditionally named “Yukhary” and “Ashaghy” caravanserai, which means “Upper” and “Lower” Caravanserai in translation from Azerbaijani into English. Construction of these caravanserai is dated back to the 18th-19th centuries.

Stop at: Kish Albanian Church - The brilliantly renovated round-towered Albanian church in pretty Kiş village has been lovingly converted into a very well-presented trilingual museum. It’s the best place anywhere to learn about mysterious Caucasian Albania, the Chris­tian nation that once covered most of north­ern Azerbaijan. In fact, the church site goes back well beyond the Christian era, and glass-covered grave excavations allow visi­tors to peer down on the bones of possibly Bronze Age skeletons.

Stop at: Museums - Shaki hosts a wealth of historical museums and some of the most important in the country. The Shaki History Museum is one of the main museums, considered one of the most important for artifacts of the Khanate period. Tour groups are marched dutifully around the Rashidbey Afandiyev Historical-Regional Ethnography Museum, whose name is more impressive than its exhibits: archaeological oddments, ethnographical artefacts and the usual emotive panels on WWII, Karabakh and the Xocali massacre. Across the road is a late-19th-century Russian church in unusual cylindrical form, built on the site of a 6th-century Caucasian Albanian original. It now hosts the limited Museum of National Applied Art that displays fairly haphazard collections of Sheki crafts, including metalwork, pottery and embroidery. Hardly worth the money. More interesting is a Shabaka Workshop where local craftsmen (no English) assemble traditional stained-glass windows, slotting together hundreds of hand-carved wooden pieces to create intricate wooden frames without metal fastenings.