Mərdəkan

Mərdəkan
—  Municipality  —
Mərdəkan
Coordinates: 40°29′32″N 50°08′20″E / 40.49222°N 50.13889°E / 40.49222; 50.13889Coordinates: 40°29′32″N 50°08′20″E / 40.49222°N 50.13889°E / 40.49222; 50.13889
Country	Azerbaijan
City	Baku
Raion	Əzizbəyov
Population (2008)[1]
- Total	15,603
Time zone	AZT (UTC+4)
- Summer (DST)	AZT (UTC+5)

Mardakan (also, Mardakan, and Mardakyany) is a settlement and municipality in Baku, Azerbaijan.^{[citation needed]} It has a population of 15,603.

History

Mardakan is one of the oldest villages of the Absheron peninsula, called after a tribe-Mards that lived here during 1st centuries AD.Near the village, several traces of an ancient settlement were discovered and the neighbouring rocks still bear some paintings of goats, bows etc. related to the period of Bronze Age.

Places of interest

The main place of interest of Mardakan are its castles. There are two of them - one being with a round tower, the other a - with a quadrangular tower.These towers are parts of the general chain of towers and other fortresses of Absheron that stretch all over the whole penisuela.When enemies attacked, the tops of these towers were lit up with oil and the whole population was in time informed of the coming danger.The round tower was built in the 13th century and is 15.5 meters,has 3 floors.The quadrangular tower dates from 14th century and is about 25 meters tall, has 5 floors.

Mardakan is the favourite places for building summer cottages. The Baku tradition to build here cottages dates back to 19th century. At that time, millionaires that actually made fortune on oil began to build magnificent cottages in Mardakan.Favourable microclimate of these places, fruit gardens and plantations attracted them.One of them is Mardakan Arboretum .

There is Tuba-Shakha mosque (15th century), house-museum of Sergei Yesenin,the summer house of the famous oil magnate Zeynalabdin Taghiyev and his grave, pools of 19th century, ancient wells, mosques, baths and etc.

Photos

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  Mardakan Arboretum.

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  Mardakan Arboretum.

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  Mardakan Arboretum.

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  Mardakan castle.

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  Mardakan castle.

References

1. ^ World Gazetteer: Azerbaijan – World-Gazetteer.com

• Mərdəkan at GEOnet Names Server