Golden Ring of Azerbaijan

Day 1. 

• Meeting with the tour guide at the airport, transfer to Baku
• Transfer to Hotel, accommodation in hotel, overnight

Day 2

• Breakfast at hotel
• Leaving hotel for Old City (Altstadt of Baku)
• Walking excursion in Old city: visiting Maiden tower (IX century), Shirvanshakhs
• Palace (XV century), Karvansarai Multani and Bukhara (XV century), places where
• Soviet movie “Brilliant hand” was filmed, Amphibian Man, Tehran 43 and so on.
• Visiting Martyrs Avenue and watching panorama of the city
• Walking excursion in Boulevard (optionally, tourists can rent a bicycle)

Day 3

• Breakfast at hotel
• Check out, leaving the hotel
• Visiting Bibi-Heybat mosque where Imam Huseyn’s sister was buried (one of the main figures in Islam)
• Watching the first oil fields
• Visiting Gobustan National Park (Site is under UNESCO World Tangible Heritage List) and watching the petroglyphs dating back to Stone Age
• Departure towards the western region of the country
• Visiting the German colonies: “Annenfeld” (Shamkir) and “Yelenedorf” (Khanlar)
• Built by German colonists from Baden-Wuerttemberg settled in these regions during the Ekaterina II period of Russian Empire
• Leaving for Gandja
• Sightseeing tour in Gandja: visiting Mausoleum of Medieval Age Azerbaijan poet Nizami Gandjavi, walking excursion to Alexander Nevsky church, Agyan church, Shakh Abbas
• Mosque, Mausoleum of khan of Gandja- Javad Khan
• Overnight in Gandja

Day 4

• Breakfast at hotel
• Leaving the hotel for Shaki
• Visiting the mountainous village Kish where ancient Alban Churches remains
• Lunch at local restaurant and tasting the main dish of Shaki “the Piti”Walking
• excursion in the oldest sites of Shaki city (Yuxari Bash)
• Visiting the Shaki Khan’s Palace (excellent example of Palace architecting during the late Safavids’ period)
• Visiting Folk Art museum of Shaki located in ancient Albanian temple.
• Visiting the Shaki Silk factory. Learning the old methods of silk production
• Visiting the Shaki Karavansarai
• Overnight in Shaki

Day 5

• Breakfast at hotel
• Leaving the hotel for Gabala
• Visiting Oguz city on the way to Gabala
• Familiarization with the local synagogues of Oguz
• Visiting the ancient Nij village and Udin’s church. (Udins are the descendants of the ancient Albanians and they kept their language and religions)
• Arriving in Gabala
• Accommodation at hotel in Gabala
• Free time (depending on the wish tourists can visit skiing resort Tufandag which is located 1660 meters above the sea level)
• Overnight in Gabala

Day 6

• Breakfast at hotel
• Leaving the hotel for Ismayilly
• Visiting the Ivanovka village (people of the Ivanovki are Molokans, Russian colonists who were moved here during Ekaterina II period of Russian Empire.
• Learning about the welfare of Molokans
• Moving to Baku through Muganly Pereval (photo capture in the most beautiful place of Caucasian Ridges)
• On the way, visiting Yeddi Gozal (7 beauties) Mausoleum in Shamakha
• Arrival in Baku
• Overnight

Day 7

• Breakfast at hotel
• Leaving for Absheron Peninsula
• Visiting the temple of fire worshippers - Ateshgah
• Transfer to Baku

Day 8

• Breakfast at hotel
• Transfer to Airport
• Visiting the “Burning mountains” (Yanardag) where natural gas output in suburban area of Baku