BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 8. The matter of including Azerbaijan's Khinalyq village (in Guba district) into the UNESCO World Heritage List will be considered in September of this year, Deputy Chairman of the State Agency for Tourism Azada Huseynova told Trend.
She said considerable work has been carried out on this, and the nomination has already been submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. Currently, the evaluation stage is in progress. Huseynova added that the peculiarity of the nomination document is that it was the first time local experts prepared it.
Khinalyq is an ancient village going back to the Caucasian Albania period. It is located high up in the mountains of Quba District of Azerbaijan.
In 2006, Azerbaijan announced plans to modernize the educational buildings, infrastructure, governmental buildings and other resources of Khinalyq. In 2007, Khinalyq State historical-architectural and ethnographic reserve was established, to preserve the unique appearance, language and customs of the village.
The inhabitants of Khinalyq have preserved their traditional way of life. The people of Khinalyq are related to the Northeast Caucasian ethnic group.
Khinalyq is surrounded by caves, pirs ('a holy place' or a 'shrine' in Azerbaijani), temples and ateshgahs (Zoroastrian praying places' in Azerbaijani).
Azerbaijan has a number of properties inscribed on the World Heritage List of UNESCO. In April 2023, Azerbaijan said it submitted its proposal (on the country's Hirkan Forests) for the UNESCO World Heritage Committee's transnational nomination at the end of 2022.
Meanwhile, it should also be noted that as a result of the Karabakh war and Armenia's occupation of Azerbaijani lands, a lot of Azerbaijan's cultural heritage suffered enormous damage.