The legendary fortress Alinja-gala is reborn in the mountains of Azerbaijan - PHOTOS

09.02.2016 14:40 | Culture

Very soon, Azerbaijan will have its own city in the sky, no way inferior to the Peruvian Machu Picchu. Like the mysterious city of the Incas, the Azerbaijani Alinja fortress is located on a mountain slope, rising up in a stepped form, completely covering the top. Restoration works of the fortress in Nakhchivan are nearing completion and soon there will be the official opening of this unique historical monument.

Nakhchivan is considered one of the hotbeds of civilization in the East. There are more than a thousand historical and cultural monuments, about sixty of which have global significance status, including the fortress city Alinja-gala. It is located on the eponymous mountain near the town of Julfa (Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic), and was presumably built in 6-8 centuries.

Towering over the whole surrounding area, it managed to become a reliable outpost on commercial and military ways, passing through Nakhchivan. The castle was one of the most powerful fortifications of its time and was mentioned in many historical sources. Here was kept the treasury of the Turkic Seljuks, the ruler of Atabeks state Muzaffar al-Din Uzbek spent the last years of his life in Alinja. The fortress has seen many conquerors; it was destroyed and rebuilt several times. The famous commander Tamerlan admired its majesty and came here to personally make sure that his troops seized the fortress.

Alinja was a kind of a small town, with its residential and public buildings, the treasury, the army and the stables. Here is how it was described by the XV century Spanish explorer Ruy González de Clavijo: “Alinja stood on a high steep hill, which was surrounded by the walls and towers at the bottom. Inside the walls, on the lower slopes of the mountain, there were a lot of vineyards, orchards, pastures, springs and water tanks. «

In 2014, the government adopted a decision on restoration of the monument: archaeologists were given a task to restore the state of the fortress as close as possible to its original look. As it was told to the portal «Moscow-Baku» by the head of the archaeological team in Alinja-gala,Veli Bakhshaliyev, restoration works began in one of the ascents to the castle, for this purpose there was built a road to the mountain, which was used to manually lift up construction materials. In a short time, the western and eastern gates of the fortress were brought to the original state, and the walls were strengthened. Archaeologists almost managed to bring Alinja-Gala to its original condition. “Residential and public areas, stables, barns, tandir ovens, water basins and underground water pipes have been discovered during the excavation. Houses, located close to each other, consisted of one room, heated by a small stove, with preserved hand mills, pottery, axes, coins. All discovered facts allow us to judge about the lifestyle of people living here”, — says Veli Bakhshaliyev.

Today, Alinja-gala fascinates with its extraordinary view: walls, start from the very foot of the mountain, rise up to hill, raw after raw, protecting the top, with its residential and other buildings. Next to the monument, there is a museum, which gathers the artifacts found during archaeological excavations. The opening of Alinja-gala is scheduled in the spring, and this event is expected not only to be of great importance for the history and culture of Azerbaijan, but also serve to attract tourists to the Nakhchivan region.