News

The Middle Ages

You can find yourself in both the Bronze Age and a medieval town in an amazing open-air museum in Azerbaijan. This is the ancient settlement of Gala, now the Gala State Historical and Ethnographic Reserve. The area of the complex, located about 40km from Baku, exceeds 81 hectares – enough to accommodate over 100 football fields!

Here you’ll witness rock paintings, constructions and everyday items from the 3rd-2nd millennia BC and climb to the top of a fortress dating from the 14th century, from where a fascinating view opens up of the Absheron Peninsula. In the medieval town, meanwhile, you’ll understand how our ancestors lived and see their clothes, crockery, coins and ornaments. And if you take an interactive tour you can try weaving a carpet, crafting a clay jug, baking bread in an old oven and working in a real blacksmith’s workshop!

The exposition of yet another unusual museum at the complex – From waste to art – will bring you back to the present with an assortment of artworks made from… household rubbish: cables, lamps, wheels, plastic water bottles, cellophane, toys, various car parts and many other worn-out things. About 180 different works of art both by local and foreign artists are exhibited here. The Simurgh bird made of iron pieces, horse figures made of wooden waste, a fish made of plastic spoons, forks and knives are just a few of the exhibits that attract attention.

At the Gala Reserve you can touch the exhibits with your hands, which the kids will love as well as the mini zoo, which accepted new additions last spring: baby goats, lambs and even a baby camel. Tours for kids aged 3 and under are free while for those aged 12 and under you pay half price. And here they won’t stop you from taking photographs.