Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

Ganja, the second largest city in Azerbaijan, will celebrate its 4000th anniversary in September.

Until recently it had been thought that Ganja is about 2500 years old. But researches by the U.S.-based Smithsonian Institution revealed that Ganja is 4,000 years old and that the most ancient part of the city is Zurnabad.

According to an official of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences' department in Ganja, Samir Pishnamazzade, one of the purposes of verifying the age of Ganja is the city's inclusion in the UNESCO list.

UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova has sent a message to Nizami Ganjavi International Center on the occasion of the Ganja anniversary.

According to the message, Bokova is delighted to congratulate the people of Azerbaijan on the anniversary of the founding of the ancient city, which is located in the northwestern part of the country.

She wrote that situated on the Silk Road, Ganja played a leading role in the commercial and cultural exchanges that occurred along these routes.

"The city hosted numerous caravanserais and bazaars, which facilitated rich interaction between travelers and communities from East and West - in the shape of goods and services as well as information, ideas and world views. Ganja has long been a crossroads of knowledge, a place of tolerance between different peoples, embodying the values of dialogue and mutual understanding at the heart of UNESCO's mandate," the message reads.

The UNESCO director general noted that events devoted to the 4000th anniversary of Ganja will be organized in Baku by the Board of Trustees of Nizami Ganjavi International Center soon.

Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan and Ganja is the capital of Azerbaijanis, the Georgians say.

A monument of ancient culture, the native land of great Azerbaijani poet Nizami Ganjavi, Ganja, is located at the north-eastern foot of the Lesser Caucasus Mountains, in one of the most beautiful corners of Azerbaijan; it has been significant to the political, economic and cultural life of the country since time immemorial. Medieval Ganja was known as an important center of craft and trade throughout the Near and Middle East.

The fact that Ganja, which is known as a regional center, is located at the crossroads of the Baku-Tbilisi caravan route, has allowed it to estab­lish trade links with large trade centers of the East beyond the Caucasus. In a nutshell, Ganja is a must-see destination to discover Azerbaijan.