Ganca

Its probably about time that I told you all a little bit about where I live- the bustling metropolis of Ganja. Its actually quite appropriate that I talk about it this week because Ganja is celebrating its 2500th anniversary. The actual age of the city is disputed, some say its as old as 2700 years. Whatever the exact age, in any case Ganja is old, very old.
Ganja is the second largest city after Baku and has an estimated population of about 300,000 people. Its hard to tell how many people actually live here because I don’t think there is a real organized census that takes place and people come and go quite a bit. There are refugees from the Armenia occupied territories of Azerbaijan and many people are leaving Ganja to work in Baku and Moscow.
There is a small but bustling downtown area with many shops, a few Turkish restaurants and a central square. The rest of the city is just houses sprawling over a fairly large area. I am lucky enough to live in the center of the city. Although its loud, most everything is within walking distance so I don’t have to risk my life on the minibuses.
As with every town in Azerbaijan there is a Heyder Aliev memorial museum. Who is Heyder Aliev you may ask? He is the former president of Azerbaijan, who died in 2003. Oddly enough his son Ilham is the president today…coincidence? Perhaps. Heyder Aliev is probably the most influential dead person I have ever known. The streets are lined with his posters and quotes from his speeches. His picture hangs in classrooms and almost every public building in the country. There are T.V. documentaries about his life almost every week. His statue is everywhere too. It makes me wonder, is he really dead? People here seemed to like him, but its hard to get straight answers about politics as there are some restrictions on freedom of speech especially when it concerns politics.
On my first day in Ganja I got my picture taken in front of the Heyder museum. The two attractive young men beside me are my supervisor, Shahla’s two children Jeffar and Azad.
Not far from the museum they have recently renovated a large fountain. It is the first singing and dancing fountain that I have ever seen. (Which I was quoted as saying on Azeri national T.V. when the interviewed me at the fountain’s opening ceremony)
The fountain has different lights and it plays various genres of music. And the flow of water to different spouts is set to the music. Its quite amazing really. The irony though is that Ganja now has a beautiful fountain that probably cost a lot of money, but there parts of the city that don’t have reliable water and the water situation in the villages nearby is even worse.
Beyond the fountain is the downtown mosque. One of my favorite things about living here is listening to the prayer calls. I was only slightly disappointed to learn that the calls are really tape recordings. But I have heard that sometimes the tapes get switched and less appropriate music gets blasted all over the city.
Behind the mosque is the Old Bath house which is now the home of the cities porcelain collection. I was lucky enough to get a private tour. There are some beautiful pieces- but I have to admit that plates and vases don’t excite me overly much.
One of the coolest buildings in Ganja is the bottle house. Ibragim Jaffarov used 48,000 glass bottles to decorate his house. There is a also a large portrait of his brother, who never returned from WWII on the back side of the house.
Lastly here is one of the few churches in Ganja. There is a small Russian Orthodox population in the city but most people are Muslim.
Well that’s a little bit about Ganja. Please if you have any questions ask- or write a comment. I really like comments and questions, then I know that I am actually writing to an audience and not just typing into empty cyberspace…I would also love any suggestions about topics you would like to know more about in Azerbaijan.