Ganja

Overview

Ganja is a historic city in western Azerbaijan on the Ganja Chay, a tributary of the Kura River. Long called the country’s second city, it now ranks third among Azerbaijan’s major urban places behind Baku and Sumqayit, with about 301,200 people in the 2025 calculation. It is best known as the home city of the 12th-century poet Nizami Ganjavi, as the seat of the Ganja Khanate until 1804, and for its 1606 Shah Abbas mosque-and-bath complex (CityPopulation; AzerNews).

The city stands at 40°39′N 46°20′E, at the foot of the Minor Caucasian Ridge, about 375 km from Baku, with a continental climate (Encyclopaedia Iranica; AzerNews). Its name comes from the Persian word ganj, meaning treasure or treasury, and a folk etymology tells of treasure unearthed on the site (Encyclopaedia Iranica). Ganja was already famous for its woollen cloths in the medieval period: the Hudud al-Alam mentions them, and the Seljuq vizier Nizam al-Mulk records that military slaves of the Samanids received a cloak of Ganjavi cloth on promotion (Encyclopaedia Iranica).

When Ganja was founded is genuinely disputed. The post-Mongol historian Hamd-Allah Mostawfi dates the Arab town to 659-60, the Armenian historian Movses Dasxurantsi gives 846-47, and the anonymous Ta’rikh Bab al-abwab gives 859-60, crediting Muhammad ibn Khalid (Encyclopaedia Iranica). The Persian form of the name points to a still older pre-Islamic town on the site (Encyclopaedia Iranica).

From treasure town to khanate capital

Ganja rose as the chief town of Arran, replacing Barda’a, and became the capital of the senior branch of the Kurdish Shaddadids after their move from Dvin (Encyclopaedia Iranica). The Seljuq commander Savtegin occupied it in 1075; it later passed to the Ildegizid Atabegs (Encyclopaedia Iranica). After Georgian raids and a violent earthquake in 1138-40, the Saljuq governor Qara Sonqor rebuilt the town, which then nurtured the poet Nizami Ganjavi (Encyclopaedia Iranica). The Mongols found it strongly fortified in 1221 and accepted payment, but returned in 1235 and burnt it; it was rebuilt but never regained its former glory (Encyclopaedia Iranica). It passed from the Aq Qoyunlu to Shah Ismail I and spent over two centuries under the Safavids, was held by the Ottomans from 1588 until Shah Abbas I retook it in 1606 after a six-month siege, fell to the Turks again in 1723, and was regained by Nader Shah in 1735-36 (Encyclopaedia Iranica). In the 18th century it became centre of the Ganja Khanate (AzerNews).

Russian conquest, Soviet industry and the modern city

Falling in the battle zone between imperial Russia and Persia, Ganja was stormed in 1804 by a Russian army and definitively ceded to Russia in 1813 under the Golestan Treaty, after which it was renamed Elisavetpol (Encyclopaedia Iranica). It belonged to the Muslim governorate of Baku until 1861, then became capital of the new Elisavetpol governorate (Encyclopaedia Iranica). Under the Soviets the town grew from 35,000 people in 1913, remaining an agricultural centre with some industry and expanding cotton-growing; by 1990 it had an estimated 281,000 people, rising past 300,000 with an inflow of refugees (Encyclopaedia Iranica). Ganja was also the capital of Azerbaijan when the country first declared its independence in 1918 (AzerNews). Renamed Kirovabad in 1935, it reverted to Ganja in the independent republic (Encyclopaedia Iranica). In 2016 it held the European Youth Capital title, the first city from a non-EU state and the only one in the Caucasus to win the bid (AzerNews).

Mosques, mausoleums and Lake Goygol

The city’s main monument is the Sheikh Bahauddin complex, dated 1606, comprising the Juma Mosque of Shah Abbas, the Chokek Hamam bathhouse and a caravanserai (AzerNews). The red-brick mosque has a prayer hall divided for men and women, windows decorated with patterned shebeke lattices, and a metal dome 17 metres across (AzerNews). The Chokek Hamam, built in 1606 by order of Shah Abbas I, is named for its shallow construction — “Chokek” means shallow — and was built of red bricks bound with egg white, clay and quicklime (Azerbaijan.Travel). The caravanserai now houses a humanitarian college and a museum of the poet Mahsati Ganjavi (AzerNews). About 7 km north stands the Imamzadeh Mausoleum, built in stages from the 14th century around the grave of one of the sons of the 5th Shiite Imam Muhammad al-Baqir and fully restored between 2010 and 2016, with a blue-tiled dome decorated with peacocks and floral patterns (Azerbaijan.Travel).

Other landmarks include the tomb of Javad Khan, last ruler of the independent Ganja Khanate, killed when Russian troops captured the city; the Alexander Nevsky Church of 1887, funded jointly by Orthodox and Muslim residents; the Bottle House, built by Ibrahim Jafarov in 1967 in memory of his younger brother and others who died in World War II; and Khan Baghi park (AzerNews). Beyond the city, Mount Kapaz and seven lakes, above all Goygol, draw visitors: the lake formed when a 12th-century earthquake collapsed part of the mountain, and it lies about 1,600 m above sea level (AzerNews; AzerNews).

Census or calculation	Ganja urban-place population	Change
1979 census	231,901	—
1989 census	278,006	+46,105
2019 calculation	299,100	+21,094
2025 calculation	301,200	+2,100

Source: CityPopulation, sourcing the State Statistical Committee of Azerbaijan.

Frequently asked questions

Is Ganja Azerbaijan’s second-largest city? No, not on current figures, though older sources call it that. CityPopulation’s 2025 urban-place calculation puts Baku first at 1,311,900, Sumqayit second at 440,900, and Ganja third at 301,200. Encyclopaedia Iranica and 2016 press coverage still used the older second-city label.

Who was Nizami Ganjavi? Nizami Ganjavi was a 12th-century poet born in Ganja, whose mausoleum is one of the city’s major attractions. AzerNews calls him the greatest Azerbaijani poet and describes Ganja as the centre of the country’s literature scene, also the home city of the poet Mahsati Ganjavi.

What is the Shah Abbas complex in Ganja? The Sheikh Bahauddin complex, dated 1606, is Ganja’s main historical monument. It comprises the Juma Mosque of Shah Abbas, the Chokek Hamam bathhouse, and a caravanserai that now houses a humanitarian college and a museum of the poet Mahsati Ganjavi.

How was Lake Goygol formed? A devastating 12th-century earthquake collapsed part of Mount Kapaz near Ganja, and the landslide dammed the valley to form the lake. Goygol lies about 1,600 metres above sea level in the Lesser Caucasus and is one of seven lakes around Mount Kapaz.

When was Ganja a national capital? Ganja was the capital of Azerbaijan when the country first declared its independence in 1918. Earlier, it was the capital of the Ganja Khanate until 1804 and, centuries earlier in the medieval period, the chief town and Shaddadid capital of Arran.

What this profile does not claim

• It does not settle Ganja’s foundation date; the 659-60, 846-47 and 859-60 medieval accounts are all reported without choosing between them.
• It does not repeat the “second-largest city” label as current fact; on 2025 urban-place figures Ganja ranks third, behind Baku and Sumqayit.
• It does not assert UNESCO protection for the Chokek Hamam, although two sources describe it that way; no UNESCO listing was verified.
• It does not adopt AzerNews’s 12th-century dating for the Juma Mosque; the profile uses 1606, corroborated for the neighbouring hamam by the state tourism portal.
• It does not cover Ganja’s post-1991 conflict history, including the 2020 missile strikes, because no fully-read source for this profile covered them.