Els Slots

The Netherlands - 05-May-25 -

This TWHS is a good excuse to visit the Azeri exclave of Nakhichevan. Its peculiar geographical location may also improve its chances of ever getting nominated to a WHS, as (a) it substantiates Azerbaijan’s territorial claim, and (b) the Great Leader (the Father) Heydar Aliyev was born in Nakhichevan. They’d need to do something about their proposition, though, as the Tentative Site Description is poorly written and even the site name makes no sense (it should be plural).

Getting to Nakhichevan from mainland Azerbaijan nowadays is only possible by flight, as since COVID, all land borders have been closed (before 2020, entry via Turkey or Iran was possible; the border with Armenia has been closed for over 30 years). The flights, there are 6-8 daily, leave from Baku’s domestic terminal, which lies next to the international one. Tickets can be booked via the Azal website – guidance in English is a bit confusing, especially about check-in, but just show up 1-2 hours before departure to get your boarding pass. My return trip cost 132 EUR.

I did it as a day trip, leaving on a morning flight and returning in the evening. If you take the earliest flight, you can cover most of the exclave by taxi or rental car. I left a bit later and limited myself to Nakhichevan City. I walked between the sights, including two of the mausoleum locations: 6km. 

The airport taxi dropped me off at the city’s highlight: the Momine Khatun Mausoleum. A small park has been created around it to emphasize the 12th-century structure’s monumentality. It isn’t very tall, but the decoration is very pretty and has been well-restored a few years ago. The style reminded me of the Silk Road site of Uzgen in Kyrgyzstan. You can also enter it: it’s only one room with a high, pointed ceiling. The girls working there were either excited to see a foreigner, or it was part of their job description to take a picture of every foreigner that comes in and write down his/her nationality – so my face is now forever registered there.

Next to the mausoleum lies a sculpture garden with interesting sculptures of rams. They were used as tombstones, often holding petroglyphs as well and are thought to be related to the Mongolian “deer stones”. 

The second mausoleum in Nakhichevan City that is included in this tentative site lies in a residential area, of particular interest if you’d like to see what a cul-de-sac in Azerbaijan looks like. This mausoleum (pictured) also has seen recent restorations, but the work looks unfinished (it seems they gave up on etching out the decorations!).

So what about the rest of Nakhichevan? It feels unreal. The huge neoclassicist Heydar Aliyev Museum looks straight out of Minsk. I also walked to “Noah’s Mausoleum”, built in a similar style as the historic ones that are the subject of this TWHS, but dating from 2006. It lies between a museum and a huge mosque, two more prestige objects attracting few visitors. I was the only one walking in the area and felt like a dwarf. Overall, I spent about 3 hours roaming the city and eating lunch, which was plenty for me.

P.S.:

Solivagant alerted me to the similarities of these mausolea with the Iranian WHS Gonbad-e Qabus (Momine Khatun Mausoleum even features in the comparative analysis in its nomination file). And indeed, both are high towers made out of brick, with geometric ornamentation, and were used as funerary monuments. Their styles were influenced by Seljuk architecture. However, Gonbad-e Qâbus is much taller and also over a century older. The Nakhchivan school is considered to be a distinct regional style. 

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Clyde

Malta - 25-Aug-23 -

I visited all 4 locations of this tWHS in 2023. Nakhchivan is a landlocked exclave and autonomous region of Azerbaijan and only reachable by a cheap plane from Baku Domestic Airport Terminal (if you're already visiting Azerbaijan's mainland), as the road border with Armenia is closed.

Car rental is a bit dodgy as there aren't any international companies, so make sure you bring cash (to avoid surprises on your credit card) and report any damages before signing any contract or giving back the keys. However, once you manage to get a car, driving here is a treat compared to Azerbaijan mainland as there's quite a lot of ground to cover and very little traffic, if any, quite a welcome break coming from Baku. The mausolea of Nakhchivan are practically scattered in 3 main locations: one main location is Nakhchivan city proper, just around 10 minutes from the airport, where the Momine Khatun Mausoleum is the central attraction of a public park, while the Yusif ibn Kuseyir Mausoleum lies in the middle of a very small residential area, some 10-15 mins away on foot; the other 2 locations, Qarabaghlar Mausoleum and Gulustan Mausoleum are in completely opposite directions, to the north and south of Nakhchivan city along the E001 highway. All 4 mausolea are doable as a pleasant day trip and can also be combined with a visit to Nakhchivan's other tWHS in Ordubad (more on that in a separate review). All visits are free of charge.

The Momine Khatun Mausoleum is a 12th century mausoleum erected by the founder of the Atabaylar state on the grave of his wife Momine Khatun. This mausoleum is the tallest and best preserved of Nakhchivan's mausolea and its brick exterior is fully adorned with geometric designs and Kufic inscriptions, the longest of which translates to "We pass away, but only the wind is left behind us. We die, but only a work is left as a present". Initially, the mausoleum was 34 metres long, but its 8 metre dome has been destroyed. The mausoleum consists of an underground vault (quite impressive brickwork and a massive one-pillar support, while the rest of the structure above ground is decagonal but with a round interior. 19th century paintings show that nearby there was a mosque and the mausoleum itself was part of the Atabeylar Architectural Complex, making it quite comparable to other Islamic mausolea in Iran and some of the "stans" of Central Asia. This mausoleum though is really unique and its restoration is perhaps the best since little or no room was left for reconstructions or modifications/additions, probably the only reason (authenticity) which could prevent this tWHS from making it on the WH list.

The Yusif ibn Kuseyir Mausoleum is also constructed out of baked bricks, this time as an octagonal structure topped with a pyramid-shaped roof. Its elaborate white stucco/plastered geometric patterns have been restored but on closer inspection, the engraved patterns on the baked bricks have been covered and/or ruined with what seems like grey concrete! There is also Kufi script from the Koran on the top part of the mausoleum, together with the name of the buried person and the construction date of the mausoleum. The mausoleum interior is vaulted and divided into cells.

The Qarabaghlar or Garabaghlar Mausoleum lies some 30 kilometres away from Nakhchivan city on the outskirts of the village of Garabaghlar. It felt like going back in time here and my visit reminded me a lot of the Khoja Ahmed Yasawi WHS in Tatarstan, Kazakhstan. The mausoleum was built in the first part of the 14th century and has a cylindrical form with twelve semicircular facets, and is part of a complex including a tomb and two 12th-13th century minarets. The Soviet era reconstruction is quite apparent here, with wrong Arabic script converted into plain geometrical designs, similar to the reconstructions I had seen mainly in Uzbekistan, but partly also in Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. The mosque is now a museum and if you allow some time to the kind person inside to explain and show you around, and visit on a not so busy time/day (ideally in the afternoon for best sunlight), he'll let you climb one of the old minarets (now reinforced with metal bars for stability and reconstructed in a completely different style, as can be seen from the photos inside the museum). The restoration of the mausoleum is far better than the reconstruction of the mosque and minarets, and the whole complex is very photogenic, however I wouldn't be in favour of inscription without the Momine Khatun Mausoleum.

Last but not least, the 12th-13th century Gulustan Mausoleum lies near Djoulfa/Julfa, just metres away from the border with Iran. In fact, you'll be closely monitored by military personnel from either sides of the border. Gulustan means "heavenly garden", because the mausoleum is located in a green hollow, not far from the Aras River and this place is called rose garden. Nowadays, a lot of roses have been planted around it and the lower part or pedestal of the red sandstone mausoleum has been painted. This mausoleum has 12 sides, each covered with rich and ornate geometric designs. The pyramid-shaped top is a reconstruction as it had collapsed. Information boards are lacking so hopefully inscription in the future would not only preserve the monuments without further fancy uneducated reconstructions or clumsy restoration, but provide more information on such beautiful and rich heritage sites. Another famous mausoleum, not part of the nomination, worth visiting in Nakhchivan is the famous Noah's Mausoleum, although a modern circular colonnade structure has been recently added around it.