Hanging tomb
Cut into the cliff.
Shafa Movsumov — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Interfase — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rəcəb Yaxşı — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rəcəb Yaxşı — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rəcəb Yaxşı — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rəcəb Yaxşı — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rəcəb Yaxşı — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rəcəb Yaxşı — CC BY-SA 4.0
A two-storey mausoleum partly cut into a rock face above the town of Maraza, on the road from Baku to Shamakhi, so that it seems to hang above the ground. An inscription in one of its corners dates it to 1402 and gives part of the architect's name. It is named after Sheikh Diri Baba, the «living grandfather»; legend says his body stayed incorrupt after his death, and the place has drawn pilgrims and the curious since the seventeenth century, when European travellers described it in their journals. The ground floor is a hall with a pointed vault, and a stairway carved into the rock leads to the upper floor, which is topped by a spherical dome with a pointed tip, its corners decorated with plant motifs. It is admired for the purity of its lines and the simplicity of its architecture, and an old cemetery with stone gravestones lies in front of it. Visiting is usually free. The stairs up to the mausoleum are steep and narrow, so watch your step. It sits on the road to Shamakhi, so many stop here on the way to the Juma Mosque; half an hour is enough.
Cut into the cliff.
To the upper floor.
Stone gravestones.
Maraza, Gobustan district, on the road from Baku to Shamakhi
In the town of Maraza on the main road from Baku to Shamakhi, about an hour and a half by car from Baku.