Northern Route: Khachmaz

KHACHMAZ DISTRICT occupies part of the Samur-Davachi Lowland and is located in the north-east of Azerbaijan. To the north it borders Russia. Major highways and a railway (Baku-Moscow) run through its territory. The climate in this area is that of moderately warm semi-deserts and dry steppes. Nevertheless, more than 20 ha of the territory here is covered with forests, several rivers flow through it, there are three artificial lakes and many springs, including thermal and mineral ones.

Here, on the border with Dagestan, there once ran the route taken by conquerors - Scythians, Alans, Huns. It was precisely for this reason that the Caspian defensive fortifications were built - fortified walls with towers that reached the territory of today's Khachmaz District. One of the ancient fortress towns - KHUDAT ("God's gift") became the capital of the Guba Khanate at the beginning of the 18th century. Here, in the area of the town of Khudat, there is a large reserve of groundwater, which is drinkable. In 1914 a water pipeline was laid from the local village of SHOLLAR to Baku.

Traces of Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements have been found throughout the district. Scholars link the toponym "Khachmaz" to incoming Hunnic tribes - the KHACHMATAKS or KHACHMATS, who were later assimilated by the local population. Interestingly, one of these tribes moved from the territory of Khachmaz District to Oghuz District, and there too they founded a village of the same name, and later the fortress of KHACHMAZ.

About 60 historical and cultural monuments have survived throughout the region, but archaeologists believe there should be many more, since this region has been densely populated since ancient times. Near the villages of MOLLABURKHAN, KHULOVLU, GARAJIK, HASANGALA, Bronze Age settlements and burial mounds have been found; near the villages of JANAKHIR and BOSTANCHI - medieval settlements. In the village of SHIKHLAR there is the SHEIKH YUSIF MOSQUE (15th c.), which belongs to the early period of architectural mausoleum complexes that became widespread later - in the 16th-17th centuries. In the villages of MORUG OBA, TAGAR OBA, UZUN OBA 19th-century MOSQUES have survived, and in the village of GARAGURTLU a MOSQUE and MADRASA (15th c.).

THE TOWN OF KHACHMAZ is the administrative centre of Khachmaz District, 157 km from Baku, population 148400. Since carpet weaving is the most developed of the traditional crafts here, a special department has been set up at the local Lyceum. Visitors to the town often come here to watch the nimble fingers of young craftswomen weave magical carpet patterns whose designs have been passed down for hundreds of years, from generation to generation.