It is the largest museum located in Azerbaijan and it is in the city of Baku which is the capital of Azerbaijan. The Museum used to be a mansion of Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev, an oil tycoon. The mansion was built from 1893- 1902 and is is built in the style of the Italian renaissance, so it takes up and entire city block! The Russian Army captured the city of Baku in April of 1920, and seized the mansion. Just two months later in June, it was proclaimed that the mansion would become a history museum.
We toured the first floor of the buildings, which gave a very detailed history of Azerbaijan, and then went out to lunch at the Belfast Pub. They had great Irish food and a very pub like atmosphere
On the second floor there are two major ball rooms. One of the rooms is oriental which has to do with the eastern world or the middle east and the other is occidental which is the western world or European civilization. The museum has ancient, medieval, and modern history of Azerbaijan. There were over 2,000 items and exhibits to look and and I wish we could have spent an entire week to soak in the history.
They had an exquisite collection of coins from the different dynasties that ruled the area:
Safavid Dynasty:
Karabakh Khanate Dynasty:
Other Dynasties:
These coins are a nice touch that is not covered about the middle east in the western museums. The museum was a perfect way to spend our day!!
We then left and got a few chicken kabobs from a very polite and patient street vendor, and then we went back to the hotel to get some shut-eye.
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