Gabala State Historical-Artistic Reserve is one of the historical places visited by tourists

The total area of the Gabala State Historical-Artistic Reserve, covering a total of 420 hectares, consists of 3 historical places - the Ancient City, Salbir and Gala. This territory, where are the remains of the ancient city of Gabala, and which for 900 years was the capital of Caucasian Albania until the 4th century BC, located between the Garachay and Jovurlu rivers, is of great importance from the point of view of archaeological research, as well as for the development of culture and tourism. Archaeological research on the territory of the reserve, conducted for the first time in 1926 under the guidance of archaeologist Davud Sharifov, was continued in 1945-1946 by the archaeologist Saleh Gaziyev, and since 1959 by Firudin Gadirov, Gara Akhmedov, Ilyas Babayev, Gafar Jabiev and other archaeologists as part of the Gabala archaeological the expeditions created by the Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan USR under the leadership of Saleh Gaziyev continued until 1990. After a long break, since 2005, at the initiative and with the financial support of the Azerbaijan-Korea Cultural Exchange Association SEBA (Seoul-Baku), archaeologists of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography of ANAS, and since 2009, thanks to the joint activities of South Korean specialists, archaeological excavations in the reserve have begun anew. The discovered archaeological finds were mothballed, information plates were installed, and the Gabala Archaeological Center was built in the reserve in accordance with modern requirements. President Ilham Aliyev officially opened the Archaeological Center during his visit to Gabala in 2014. The archaeological center consists of two exhibition salons (museums), a modern restoration laboratory, a conference hall, a library, an archaeological foundation and auxiliary premises. Material and cultural samples discovered during archaeological excavations in the area are recorded and transferred to the center's fund and shown to visitors in the exhibition hall. In connection with the announcement by the president of our state of 2020 as the “Year of Volunteers” in the Republic of Azerbaijan, volunteers are being involved in the Gabala State Historical and Artistic Reserve and the Archaeological Center, and theoretical and practical trainings are being conducted in Russian and English. The scale of the work done by the First Vice-President on preservation of tangible and intangible heritage of Azerbaijan, restoration and promotion of historical, religious and cultural monuments Mehriban Aliyeva is immeasurable. The Azerbaijan-Korea Cultural Exchange Association (SEBA) also supports archaeological research in Gabala, the first capital of Caucasian Albania, to contribute to this initiative. As a continuation of the scientific research related to Gabala, the collection, which is the result of the “Gabala Ethnographic Expedition” and consisting of the books “History of Gabala”, “Ethnography of Gabala” and “Gabala Folklore”, was published in 3 languages (Azerbaijani, Russian, English) and presented to readers.