#1. Quba
Famous for apples and carpet-making, Quba is a town in three parts. Old Quba is a grid of low-rise streets raised above the deep-cut Qudiyalçay River. This had been the 18th-century capital of local potentate Fatali Khan, but later became a provincial backwater once the khanate had been absorbed into the Russian Empire (1806).
North across the river is Qirmizi Q?s?b?, a unique Jewish settlement. And to the east, the new town stretches 3km to Flag Sq where a monumental trio of 21st-century public buldings boast proud stone facades and pediments. Quba is a popular getaway in itself but more particularly a gateway to Azerbaijan’s most interesting and remote mountain villages.