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.