Nakhchivan - Azerbaijan
Intro
This is look into the little visited
enclave of Nakhchivan - a part of Azerbaijan, seperated from the 'main'
part of the country. I had just been on the top of Mt. Ararat in
Turkey, and had looked for an interesting place to visit in the
vicinity. Many choices - Irak, Iran, Georgia, Armenia - and here...

Travel information
The
most
common
way
to
Nakhchivan
is
via
air
to/from
Baku. A new route has started operating from Istanbul
this spring, and it is quite cheap – possible cheaper than from Baku. I
went through the Turkish corridor between Armenia and Iran – there is a
10 km border between Nakhchivan and Turkey
1 Manat = 1 Euro, so the currency is easy to calculate with.
1 TL (Turkish Lire) = ½ Euro, so this is also easy to
calculate...
Visa: Most nationalities need a visa to enter Azerbaijan. You can get a
7 day tourist visa when entering through Baku, but it is not possible
at any of the Nakhchivan borders. I applied for visa through the London
office - read more here.
It
is
55£. The problem is the posting of the passport. I cannot buy
British stamps
on-line (I tried, but the British post sent my money back and said it
was not possible). A friend recommended to send a 10£ note with the
self adressed envelope - and it worked.

Press the map to see a larger image.
Tourism
You are the only tourist in
Nakhchivan. This may change, but it is also
the charm of this place. Natig
is the only
bureau that can help tourists, and I can recommend their service
highly. They can help with the logistics.
Quick facts
Favorite car:
Lada
Favorite drink: tea, through a sugar cube
Favorite food: Lule barbeque
Books
There are not so many adressing
Nakhchivan. The best is the chapter from the Lonely Planet book - you
can buy just Azerbaijan chapters if you just need this. A Thorntree
reader recommended 'the Mark Elliott Azerbaijan book is about a million
times better than the LP. The 4th addition is out and is far more
up-to-date and detailed than the LP' (fluffy_bunny)
Friday 3.9. Dogubayazit, Turkey -
Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan
It was easy to get onwards to Igdir – at
12:00 I was on a minibus (5TL, 45 minutes). New views of Ararat, but
the west side view was blocked by a ridge, so you didn’t see quite as
much. From the Igdir side (North West), the view is different, and you
can see that the glacier goes much further down here. The Parrot
glacier is fully visible.
I did not have a map of Igdir, but walked around a bit. It was 40
degrees, so it was hard to keep on. Saw a couple of hotels, but decided
to move on. Looked at a minibus station, and then someone approached me
in German and asked if he could help. Super. He lived in Germany and
was here in Igdir for 14 days on vacation and to attend a funeral of
his cousin. Except for him, it did not seem like any other understood a
word of English. He walked with me to the municipal building/square, to
Igdir Turizm, and there I waited for a shuttle to the bus station from
where the busses departed. When I returned a few days later, I saw this
station on the south ring road (south east). I waited for almost 2
hours, and I should have asked directions and taken a taxi there, but
the German speaking guy was gone. Hmm, considered a hotel, but then
just outside the door, there was a couple of men talking – and Kim
Bodnia with gold tooth (like in the movie, 'Pusher' ) suggested
that I should take his 'taxi' – only 30$. Yes. First he did have a lot
of different errands and we went to a store house and filled up his car
with soda's and agriculture seeds. He was probably more of a smuggler
type than a taxi driver in a big Toyota. He thought more of it as
'cargo'. He didn’t speak much English, but he often tried to start a
conversation – like 'You, Erik, ha, ha', and then gestured like someone
drinking – something we drink in Nakhchivan – Arak? He was actually
quite nice. He knew everybody at the border, and it was not until then
that it became apparent that he was from Nakhchivan where he had
family. He drove to Igdir most days. The passport was checked at the
Turkish border, the car was then noted. Then passport control and
customs for Azerbaijan. It was clear that it was seldom that a
westerner came this way. The guy at the passport control could not
really understand my Visa – that it was from London, and I didn't live
there. The customs guy was a young man who got questions from someone
else and then translated the question to me – not unpleasant, maybe
even funny. What are you doing here? Tourist. Tourist? There is nothing
to see here – we don't have tourists here. Well, it took a while to
have all Kim's goods scanned, bribery paid before we could get on. Very
beautiful sunset with the Ararat mountains and sun setting behind us.
This is the end of the long, thin Turkish corridor - the area where
Turkey, Iran, Armenia and Azerbaijan meets
within a few square kilometers, so there was police and fences
everywhere. I did not see any military, but I'm sure it was there
somewhere. Gasoline was 70 cents / .7 Manat where it was 1.30 – 1.60 €
in Turkey. The road was
perfect and 4 lanes on the Nakhchivan side, with small red-blinking
leds in the middle of the road. It started to get dark, and I found out
that here we are 2 hours later than on the Turkish side! So when I
thought it was early evening at 19:30 – it was 21:30 instead. Ups.
Aliheydar Pashayev, my contact, was at the bus station on the outskirt
of the city, and we drove around among beautiful and illuminated
buildings – it looked quite overwhelmed. To the Tabriz hotel, one of
the top-end hotels in the
country. It was a little funny since Aliheydar and the bellboy went up
with me to the room on the 11th floor, and the bellboy showed that
there was water in the faucet, towels, the shower worked, the hairdryer
worked – and lifted the mattress to feel and show that not a single
spring had sprung – while Ali translated. Then I discussed the program
for the next days with Ali. Ali suggested a program for the next days
from morning to evening, where my suggestion was that I was on my own
tomorrow. The compromise was that I went with Hassan, the driver and
guide, for a couple of hours in the morning, and not paying extra for
this. Then we went to have dinner (it was a little late), and we went
to the eastern part of town. I was getting very hungry, so I was happy
to go. Many of the restaurants here are a little special for us, since
they are outdoor and away from other houses, with small gardens and
small enclosures with a table and a few chairs, and away from the other
tables and guests. Had something similar to Cevapcici (a Balkan dish) –
called Lule kebab here.
You quickly notice that Islam is different here. There is no (not that
I noticed) calling for prayer from the minarets like in Turkey, and it
did not seem like tea was a part of the no-go items during the Ramadan.
Very few with headdresses and it seemed quite common with alcohol
(beer, vodka, etc.)


Saturday 4.9. Nakhchivan City
Looked out from my 11th floor window, and
suddenly the nightly fairytale city was transformed to a more ordinary
city. Old Russian-looking facades showed up, though many of them were
being renovated.
The waiter at the breakfast buffet correctly guessed that I was from
Denmark. On his list, the other 20 listed were from Iran. They come
here to drink beer and do some fanning of the hair – there are not that
many countries Iranians can enter easily.
Getting a bit of local currency turned out to be no problem – there was
an ATM at the entrance of the hotel :-)
09:30 to Noah's grave. Beautiful monument with photos and paintings
inside the monument. I didn't fully understand the story, but I think
the story says that the grave was at this place since it was one of the
highest points of the city. A local painter painted the grave in the
early nineteen hundreds and it was then rediscovered later and the
upper part of the monument was added. Below the hill there was a
put-and-take lake with a restaurant – maybe one could have the fish for
dinner after catching it. There were different museums and monuments to
see, but I had the help from Hassan, my driver, to do a few practical
things. The pharmacy for lip-balm (a bit scorched from the high
altitude sun) – and postcards. He had a couple of ideas where I could
get it, but no. After calling a few places and friends, he got a tip,
and we picked up a woman at a mosque and drove to a storage (see the
picture below) behind the government building. Here we found a couple
of decks in the piles of books and paper. Not particular good postcards
– mostly of municipal buildings – but postcards none the less. Also a
small booklet about Nakhchivan in English – with the first city map I
had seen, except the map from Lonely Planet Armenia-Azerbaijan book –
which I (argh!) had forgotten to bring. From the suggestions, the salt
mines sounded interesting. 10 km outside the city. It turned out to be
an asthma centre drilled into the salt mountain.
There is a newly build 5-star hotel just outside – for the relatives
(according to Hassan). To enter the mountain, we needed to get approved
by a doctor in white gown. He hesitated for a few seconds and then gave
us a
nod to enter the mountain. It is used for asthmatics as a natural cure
– the clients then sleep inside the cave during the night. The smell
of salt was very pervasive as soon as you got inside. There was a long
path to the 'hotel' inside. It seemed very new and nice. Found it
interesting. Lunch (Lule kebab) and I sent Hassan home. Visited the
supermarket across the hotel. They seemed to be well stocked with
foreign goods with a liking for beer and variants of Vodka. I looked
for local goods, but did not find so much. There was a local white wine
and a few other things. Went to an internet café (there were
several) and had my Where I've
Been map updated – it strangely went
from 21% of the world to 27% by adding Turkey and Azerbaijan...
Relaxing at the hotel, having a cold beer at the 13th floor, writing a
couple of postcards. Did a small round, passing by a few monuments, but
it was too hot. Sauna at the hotel (this is the vacation and relaxation
part of my holiday).
The Azerbaijan news on the TV starts with a map of the country and fire
different places (like Nagorno Karabakh) and a English voiceover
pronouncing all the Armenian crimes against the country and resolutions
declaring Armenia to get out of there. The hate between Azerbaijan and
Armenia is very profound.
Sunset
around
19:30,
did
some
photo
taking
in
the
park and the Momina Khatun
monument. At 21:00 at the restaurant in the hotel – the 13th floor
restaurant with views of all the city. I was the only one here. The
waiter was quite funny, and could just a few words in English, like the
others. 'Denmark, very good city'. He was very impressed that I had
been to Mt. Ararat and liked seeing a few pictures and films on my
camera. On a good day, it can be seen all the way here to Nakhchivan
city. The menu included: Strange Sandals, Schintzel, Steak mix, Lule
barbecue (pulled meat), Internal organs barbecue, To cover with ashes
(with potato), Having fruit barbecue (chicken), potato tail babecue. I
asked what ‘steak mix’ was, and he went to the kitchen and when he
returned he told
me: 'It is fantastic!' I had to try this. It turned out to be 2 pork
chops (maybe not, but it tasted so), with melted cheese. And it was
great. Being a Muslim country, they obviously don't drink much, but
they had a few of bottles of Wine in display. A couple of them were
from Azerbaijan, though not from Nakhchivan. 'Yeddi Gözal' – it
was expensive 25€, and tasted like a sweet port wine.
The hotel elevator needed to be reprogrammed. When I was younger, I
thought it would be interesting to write elevator-programs, finding an
optimal serving plan for people on all floors. But this elevator was
strange. I was on the 11th floor and was going up (to the highest
floor, 13). It would then go down to the 1st floor pick up people who
were going to the 5th floor – and then return to 11 and 13th floor with
me.








Sunday 5.9. Ashabu Kahf Cave – Snake
Mountain – Julfa – Ordubad – Nakhchivan City
Hassan picked me up at 9. We changed the
hotel to Xayal, which costed 60$ (Tabriz was 120$). Not a hotel to
remember, but it was OK. I suggested to Hassan that they should offer a
translation service to the Tabriz hotel, to re-translate the menu. He
figured out what several of the items could have been – like the ‘to
cover with ashes’, would probably be potatoes wrapped up and cooked on
hot coal.
The Armenian discussion often comes up, and I had a small 'discussion'
with Hassan this time on the way to Ashabu Kahf Cave. A friendly
discussion, that is. Hassan thought the Turks should throw out the one
million Armenians working there, since they took the jobs from the
Turks, where I advocated for there must be a reason that the hire an
Armenian instead of a Turk – e.g. they are better qualified, or they
would do jobs that the Turks would not do - there are different number
mentioned at this link. It
says there are about 50.000 Armenians in Turkey, but maybe up to one
million who are descendants some way. We
talked about the refugees from the small enclaves that the Armenians
had occupied, where as there had never been one Armenian on Nakhchivan
land – where I mentioned the churches and buildings that the Azeri had
leveled in return. He could not accept that – there had never been one
Armenian church or building here. It is quite certain what he really
believed, but I think much of the history has been deleted or withheld
from the people here – at least I found this account very interesting: http://forum.openarmenia.com/topic/8751-steven-sim-january-2006-visit-to-nakhchivan/
. My small booklet claimed that there were 99,1% original Azeri here,
where the rest were Russians. There are not many countries that can
claim the same since people always mix. Armenia is probably the same,
but both countries are well famous for moving people forcefully.
Arriving at the Ashabu Kahf, we were at one of the
protruding mountains. Quite beautiful mountains with interesting caves.
I like to watch people at these kinds of religious pilgrimage sites. It
was not specifically Muslim, but emanates from a legend where some
people slept for 309 years in these caves, while a tyrant ruled. The
story is somehow
mentioned in the Koran – the story about the Seven Sleepers, I read. It
has
been a pilgrimage site since the 6th century. There were many families
here and a nice place for a picnic or a cup of tea. We continued to the
Snake Mountain (Ilandag, 2415 m), which also is a photogenic mountain
that sticks up from the plains. One of the places I had on my itinary
from the beginning. It is difficult to find good pictures
on the internet, but we drove very close to it. A local legend says
that the cleft on the top was made by Noah's Ark. The mountain looked
very steep and impossible to climb [a reader commented that he did it,
so it is not]. It is visible from Nakhchivan city.
We continued to Julfa – the border town to Iran, next to river
separating these two countries. All Nakhchivan trucks go this way to
pass through Iran to Azerbaijan, since Armenia (of course) is blocking
all through transport the direct way. The story of Julfa (or Culfa) is
somewhat interesting. On the Iranian side, there is also a city of the
same name, and it used to be Armenian. In 1604, most Armenians were
moved to Esfahan in Iran (they were skilled craftsmen), where the
neighborhood still exists (we visited here a couple of years ago) with
an Armenian churches and Armenian population.
There are actually quite tall mountains on the Iran side of the river,
where as it becomes Arizona red rock on the Nakhchivan side. Also it
looks like earth plates being parallel pushed up in a 45 degree angle.
It would look really good in the sunset. Lunch as usual at an outdoor
restaurant, except we got grilled lamb chops instead of Lule kebab (by
mistake), but it was quite good. Close by, we came to Ordubad, which is
the easternmost town. Ordubad was not really interesting, but it is the
'end of the road', then across the mountains the Armenian corridor
(Zangazur) to Iran, which the Russians created in 1918, and thereby
seperating Nakhchivan from the rest of Azerbaijan. It seems that
at least for this the Russians are blamed and not the Armenians. We
quickly visited an underground water canal, the mosque and saw the
restoration of an Albanian church (where this is Caucasian Albanian and
has nothing to do with the country Albania) and had tea at the square.
It was so hot that we returned. On the way we visited an old bridge. I
thought it would be the beautiful Mostar-type bridge seen on some
pictures, but no, that one was swept away two years ago.
We were back
at 17:00 and we were just in time to send the postcards before the post
office closed. There was no way to figure out that it was the post
office, so I'm happy Hassan helped here (it is on the Lonely Planet
map, I can see being back). She copied my passport (!) before the
postcards could be accepted. It took four weeks before we received them
in Denmark. The stamp she used was actually quite interesting – a map
of Nakhchivan with several printed strike outs of the prices and years
– a collectors item. A quick visit to Yusif Ibn Kusir tomb which also
is one of these great 11th century tombs.
Aliheydar came by my hotel a bit later. I got a few cd's from him about
Nakhchivan and interesting histories and information - and refused a
couple of them with titles like 'Armenian terrorists' that sounded a
bit too one-sided. Hassan and I went to the internet café (Fuji
at the corner of Ataturk and H. Aliyev Prospect), and were dropped off
at a (yes, typical outdoor style) restaurant in walking distance of the
new hotel. Lule kebab, plastic chairs, beer – yes, very typical.






Monday 6.9. Nakhchivan City – Van (Turkey)
Walked to the market and the Turkish mosque
in the morning and had some great sunrise pictures. After breakfast,
Hassan picked me up at 9:30 and were then going to the airport to pick
up the tourist taking over the job after me. Another MTP top-50
traveler from Greece (Harry Mitsidis), Hassan had looked up. We did a
quick welcome to
him and congratulation that in a couple of hours he was the only
tourist in the country. Aliheydar and I went with his taxi driver,
while the Greek went touring with Hassan. Our driver turned out to be
none other than Tommy
Lee Jones, though his stomach had gained a bit
lately. He was like Kim Bodnia well known at the border. He took out
the instrument panel and hooked the trip-counter back up. A few
kilometers before the border to Turkey, he entered a backyard (along
with many other cars), and had the tank filled – Ali thought he might
save about 5%. At the border there was a line of maybe half an hour,
but I walked with Ali past the cars and talked to about 10 different
people (rising rank) and finally the top chief, who let us in first. No
line at the Turkish control. It took 3 hours in total to Igdir. We had
a quick lunch, and they drove me all the way to Dogubayazit. I quickly
got my luggage from the hotel Nuh and the time was now around 13:00
(remember, we gained 2 hours with the time difference at the border).
The last mini-bus to Van for today was at 14:00, so it was fine. It is
a long trip to Van – 2:45 hours. I found a (totally crazy) taxi driver
who took me to Akdamar Hotel.
100 TL. Fine room and lots of activities going on outside. Only thing
was that it was quite warm and there was no ventilation or A/C. Walked,
read, Pizza and I finally found a great place to have coffee (this is
Tea-country) – great – Simit Sarayi, one block to the right of the
hotel.
I woke up around 01:00 in the morning – and there was still many people
outside in the street and shops that were open.


Sunday 7.9. Van – Århus
Surprisingly expensive taxi for the 5 km to
the
airport (22TL) – it had a meter, but I must have been cheated somehow.
Hmm.
It was a pleasure to fly out of Van – all guys, rejoice – Angelie Jolie
has a part time job here as a security / passport controller in the
departure lounge. After take off, Ararat could actually be seen to the
north for some time, with it’s peak ‘peaking’ through the high clouds.
In Istanbul Ataturk airport at noon, got my luggage, changed to
international and checked in with AirBaltic.
Continued
15:05
to
Riga,
arrived
18:00,
super
quick change of planes, passport control and in
the air again 18:35 on time AND (to my surprise), I even got my
backpack with me. Impressing. In Copenhagen 19:00 and my train half an
hour later – everything on schedule.
You'll
find
my
e-mail on my main page - questions or comments are welcome.
Read the pre-story from the Ararat
climb in Turkey here
Homepage of the
Futtrup family
Visitors since September 2010: