Mingachevir City History Museum

Mingechaur City History Museum — began its activity on 11 January 1968 in one room of the M. Davudova named Mingechaur Drama Theatre building with 50 exhibits. The museum building consists of 2 floors. Its total area is 810 m². On the upper floor there are two exhibition halls covering ancient and modern periods. The museum holds 15 471 exhibits. The oldest exhibits are material and cultural samples from the 3rd–1st millennia BC.

Museum collection

As a result of the work of museum staff, the museum collection comprises more than 15 000 exhibits.

Museum building

In 1985 the museum was moved to an adapted space on the first floor of a 9‑storey residential building and operated in this building until 2013. In 2013, by the relevant order of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Mingechaur City History Museum was transferred to a new building. The Ministry carried out renovation, restoration and reconstruction work here and also carried out artistic decoration for the new exhibition.

Museum exhibition

The museum consists of three sections: Ancient Mingechaur, Modern Mingechaur and the Martyrs’ Memorial Museum section. The Ancient section contains exhibits covering the period from the 3rd–1st millennia BC to 1948, displays reflecting activities such as pit houses, pottery, copper working, weaving, fishing and hunting, burial mounds, battle scenes of Amazons and vitrines depicting the lifestyle of Neanderthals. Here are displayed material and cultural samples representing various historical periods from the Eneolithic (from the 3rd millennium BC) onward, identified during archaeological excavations conducted from 1946 to 1953 under the leadership of archaeologist Saleh Qaziyev in the southern part of the Bozdag system and on both banks of the Kura River.

The modern section includes an exhibition covering the period from 1948, when Mingechaur was granted city status, to the present day, archaeologists' personal items, the office of I. Islamzada who led the construction, a furnace showing how electric energy has been obtained from ancient times to the present, a device illustrating the operating principle of the hydroelectric power station, the first barak houses, samples of products manufactured by factories and plants that once operated in Mingechaur, opening scenes of the AzDRES built as a result of the attention and care of the national leader Heydar Aliyev to Mingechaur, photographs reflecting President Ilham Aliyev’s visits to Mingechaur and photographs related to the development of tourism in Mingechaur. The modern Mingechaur section also consists of corners reflecting social and political events from the early 20th century, when the Azerbaijan People's Republic was established, to the present, and the city's contemporary development.