GALA-DORF

Gala State Historical Ethnographic Reserve and Open Air Museum. Inside there are three different types of museums: Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography (open-air) [dubious – discuss], Castle Museum (partly open-air), and the Museum of Antiques. Vehicles are offered to visitors due to the spacious area of museums.

The museum is 1.5 ha in area and has rock paintings, pottery, household items, jewelry, weapons and coins belong to the ancient times of Azerbaijan. In this museum, there are more than 2,000 different archaeological and architectural monuments – mounds, seats of ancient settlements, burial places dating back to thousands of years ago.

The reserve was established in the year of 2008 under the auspices of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation. It is located in Qala, 40km far from Baku and bears the name of this district. Gala- State Historical Ethnographic Reserve is devoted to the history of the Absheron Peninsula. As a result of archaeological excavations, it is feasible to get the picture of the lifestyle of the Azerbaijani people from ancient times to the Middle Ages.

There is an 18th-century tandoor, two underground passages belonging to the 10th and 15th centuries. Besides these, old houses, portable tents made of animal skins, stone and straw houses with domes, an old smithy, a pottery workshop, and a thresher can be found. All these can be touched and photographed.