Sheki

Why Sheki works

Sheki sits in the folds of the Greater Caucasus, four hours from Baku, and feels like a different country from the capital's oil-boom skyline. The Khan's Palace, built in 1762 without a single nail, is the town's centrepiece: its facade a lattice of shebeke stained glass assembled from thousands of hand-cut coloured pieces, its interior walls covered floor to ceiling in floral and hunting-scene frescoes painted by local Sheki-school artists. Around it, the old town's caravanserais — two of the largest surviving on the Silk Road, both still functioning as guesthouses — recall Sheki's centuries as a stopover between Shirvan, Georgia and Persia for silk and spice traders. The Sheki Khanate Museum and the Juma Mosque add layers of Azerbaijani and Islamic history, while the Kish village church, one of the Caucasus's oldest, sits a short drive above town. Sheki is also the source of piti, a saffron-lamb stew cooked and served in individual clay pots, and halva made from walnuts and rice flour in dozens of family workshops. Cooler and greener than Baku, with the Caucasus visible from nearly every street, Sheki rewards a two-night stay far more than a rushed day trip.

Trip Snapshot

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