Today we decided to go the Nizami Museum of Azerbaijani Literature. We woke up and ate breakfast quickly, it was another complementary one, delicious and free! This is our second to last day in Azerbaijan, we couldn't waste it! We chose the old museum for its historic value and importance. Outside it was around 57 degrees and was getting colder, just barely!
The building itself was not always a museum, and was opened in 1939.
One major item we found in the museum was Nizami’s manuscript of “Sharafname and Isgendernam” (WHICH WAS WRITTEN IN 1413!). These were two important epic poems written by Atabəylərindən Nusrateddin. All of these are ancient and are valuable cultural artifacts.We saw the famous poem about Pushkin’s decease called Bangu-Bade. Pushkin was a Russian poet who supported reforms. Supposedly there are more than 3000 different manuscripts form all over!While we were inside we noticed that the museum was fairly big, it was over 2500 square meters (nearly 27,000 square feet). In that big space there certainly was a lot of poems and books, but there were also a lot of sculptures, some are shown in the pictures below. We found many sculptures by the famous sculptors Muhammad Fuzuli, Mirza Fatali Akhundov, and Jafar Jabbarly. There is actually a total of 120,000 artifacts in the museum, we looked at many of them, but could only remember a few. All the things mentioned above are a part of Azerbaijan's history, just like back home in the U.S.
After visiting the museum we went to get lunch at the Fountain Square. It was a pretty sight with many options to shop. One bonus was the good food there. After lunch we returned back to the museum and continued exploring.
We went on the tour of the museum, which helped us learn some interesting facts. One important thing we learned is that the museum only allowed visitors after the Second World War. The building was originally used as a hotel and was only later transferred into a literature museum, turning into what we see today.
The exterior is covered in statues of great local authors, we had no idea who they are but they were apparently very important to the locals. You can see pictures of them above.
For our dinner we decided to splurge and eat at a Fresh Italian Kitchen. The food tasted like it was fresh from Italy and we enjoyed it a ton! We then ventured to a bar named Finnegan's to have a beer. We really enjoyed the time that we were able to spend out, but returning to the hotel was sketchy. Our hotel was on a street with no street lights and the street was dark, so we hurried inside. Still, it is a great vacation.
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