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.

Sheki, the cultural heart of Azerbaijan

To make up for my last posting having no pictures and all text, ( I assume nobody liked it since I didn't get any comments on it) this entry will be more pictures and less of my blabbering on about my woes here in Azerbaijan. I've been meaning to write about Sheki since I went about a month ago but I didn't get around to it. So anyway here it is, a little information about and photos from Sheki, my favorite place in Azerbaijan so far. You may want to ask, "Kate, why is it your favorite place in Azerbaijan?" and now I will tell you. I like Sheki because it is in the mountains and considerably cooler than Ganja. Mountains mean hiking, and this time up than down and not down than up. It is a tourist city so the people are a bit more open to foreigners walking around- example: it is not wierd for women to order alcohol in restaurants. I like the history and culture here. Sheki is famous for the Khans palace, which although small, is very beautiful and special in that it is one of the only palaces that has not been looted and destroyed by various invading forces.
While in Sehki I stayed at the Caravanserai which was an ancient stopping over place (like a motel) for large caravans traveling across the country. If I breath really deeply I think I can still smell the camels ! :) The rooms are really cool, in both senses of the word. They are dark and made of stone which keeps the heat out and the cold in. Upon entering there is a sitting room with couches and chairs and then you walk through anothe door way into the bed room. Although it definitely was not luxurious the atmosphere completely compensated for it.

The rooms all face into a central courtyard and garden with large fountain with benches. It really is beautiful with the afternoon sunlight.

The first two days in Sheki I went hiking, and although it was not the Alps or even the White Mountains it was very beautiful. There are plans to develop the area as a ski resort town. That is why this road/path was built to the top of the mountain. Who knows if these plans will be realized. As with everything here- if it is the will of God then it will happen if it isn't ,than it won't.

On day three I toured the Khan's palace. There were many other tourists there even though the weather had turned bad. The outside facade is all mosaic and the inside has beautiful painted walls with scenes of various historical signifcance. The colors are all natural dyes and the story goes that the palace was built without any nails. What I found most intersting was that photos were not allowed unless you paid an extra fee. So basically its okay to ruin the artwork with flash photography, you just have to pay for it. There was definitely a seeming lack of respect for these national treasures. Which is strange to me considering how nationalistic many Azerbaijanis are here.

Sheki is a cute little romantic getaway type of town. With great sunsets!