Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences

International archaeological expedition Azerbaijan-Germany conducts archaeological excavations in a large urban settlement dated back about 2500 years ago, near the village of Garajamirly, Shamkir region since 2006.

According to members of the expedition, palaces and other buildings in the ancient city were located at a distance from each other and were surrounded by walls. It is noted that in large constructions were spacious halls and long corridors. Discovered in the settlement monument existed about 220 years - from 550 BC to 330 AD. This monument is compared with the constructions Pasargrad, Persopol belonging to Achaemenid Empire. It is assumed that the location near the village Garajamirly settlement is the administrative center of the Achaemenid Empire, controlling the entire South Caucasus. As a result of excavations carried out by the international cruises in several places of the settlement, the remains of large administrative, commercial, industrial buildings and religious monuments have been discovered. Of these, the remains of the great palace are of particular importance.

Expedition leader, corresponding member of ANAS Ilyas Babayev said: "Until now, there were found 28 columns. Apparently, there are more than 100 columns. The palace was the main entrance width of 8 to 25 meters in length, located in the back of the audience hall area of 675 square meters, and located around the hallways and large rooms. A small amount of material culture samples found here refers to the elite culture. The pottery is very few. However, if this was not a palace, a pottery would be prevailed. The most interesting thing is that there are not found cuneiform inscriptions."

Currently, the expedition is excavated in an area referred to as the fifth section of the palace. As part of an international expedition undergraduate of the University of Ankara, Japanese Matsumi Uehara is also involved with the German archaeologist.

Matsumi Uehara said that as a result of the excavations, which lasted 10 days, the brick buildings and trash lowlands, as well as fragments of ceramics and a jug, stone tools were found.

Note that the area of the palace along with his plot, surrounded by walls, is 20 hectares. At the moment, only the front door and a certain part of the palace excavated. It is likely that the palace was built in the first half of the V century BC, about 2480 years ago.

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