Travelers to discover more amazing places in Guba
Guba is one of the most popular regions of Azerbaijan for recreation. In 2016, about 82,000 local and foreign tourists visited Guba, which is especially compelling in the spring, when fruit gardens blossom, and the parks are covered with emerald greenery.
Indeed, Guba is famous for its settlements, in which along with Azerbaijanis live Jews, Lezgins, Tats, Meskhetian Turks, Khinaligs, Budukh, Gryz and representatives of other nationalities. Residents of such original settlements of Guba as Krasna Sloboda, Khinalig, Gryz, Jack and many others, belonging to different nationalities, cherish their customs, cultural and culinary traditions.
Murad Hajiyev, director of the Tourist Information Center of Guba, in his interview with Azertac said that Guba is ready to welcome more tourists in the new season.
Noting that Guba is characterized by unique natural landscapes, attracting the attention of tourists, he said many travelers, who come to the region are eager to see the natural Afurdja waterfall, carrying its stormy waters from 75-meter height, and marvel at the sheer cliffs of the Tangaalty gorge. The high-altitude original village of Khinalig, whose hospitable inhabitants have preserved a unique language and traditions, is of unchanging interest.
The Guba Tourist Information Center invariably includes trips to picturesque villages in its excursion programs, which will please the fans of ethnic tourism.
He said that the center constantly develops and implements a variety of excursion programs. “To this day, tourists could use the four routes of travel around the region. In the new season we have implemented the fifth route, covering the new direction of travel Guba - Alydzh, rich in interesting opportunities for the development of ecotourism,” he added.
The region has a large number of historical and cultural attractions - ancient mosques, bridges, baths, museums. Amazing carpets of the famous Guba school of carpet weaving are a dream of any collector, and delicious dishes of local cuisine will not leave indifferent any gourmet.
“It is said that the writer Alexander Duma, who visited Guba in the 19th century, once stopping at a halt near the road, was invited to the fire by local residents who also decided to rest and refresh themselves. Duma was impressed by how artfully the Guba people cooked lamb and taste of the kebab, which they treated him. I assure you, from those, we did not lose our culinary skills!” Hajiyev said.
Guba has long attracted travelers from all over the world. At one time, Guba was visited by tfamous French writer Alexander Duma, Russian writer Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, famous Norwegian travel scholar Thor Heyerdahl.
Speaking about major annual events organized in Guba to attract tourists, he said that apple is a symbol of Guba and every year in October, during the harvest season, the "Apple Feast" is celebrated.
“These days the alleys of the Central Park of Heydar Aliyev serve as an exhibition platform for farmers who represent different varieties of apples and products from them. During the celebrations there are competitions, performances of musical collectives and folk performers. "Apple feast" invariably attracts to the region a lot of guests from Azerbaijan and various countries,” he noted.
In recent years, Guba witnessed an increase in the number of foreign tourists. The most interesting for foreign guests are the historical, cultural and natural monuments of the region, museums and original villages such as Krasna Sloboda - a place of compact residence of mountain Jews, or Khinalig, which preserved the thousand-year lifestyle. Great attention is paid to the natural attractions - the Afurdja waterfall and the Tangaalta gorge, as well as the cultural traditions of the area, such as carpet weaving and national cuisine.
It is impossible not to mention the ancient Arched Bridge. The only bridge that has survived to this day, called Gudialchaysky, is one of the seven existing in Guba district in the XVII-XIX centuries. Fourteen of its spans with a total length of 275 meters and a width of 8 m are made of burnt bricks. A bridge of similar construction, built in the XIX century the only one in Azerbaijan!
And, of course, all travelers are eager to visit the Guba memorial complex of genocide, built in memory of tens of thousands of Azerbaijanis who were victims of mass killings that were organized on the Azerbaijani land in 1918 by Bolshevik-Armenian armed groups. In 2007, during the construction work, a mass grave was accidentally discovered in Guba, near which a memorial complex and a museum with a rich exposition based on historical documents and facts were created.
Currently there are about 40 hotels and hotel-type facilities in Guba , as well as 2 guest houses. For the convenience and attraction of tourists in the region, the corresponding infrastructure is constantly improving - roads are being restored, the number of vehicles plying inside the district is increasing, and the staffs of hotels, cafes and restaurants are being instructed to provide a higher level of service to tourists.