The carpet museum of Nakhchivan
The Khan’s House has been used as a museum since 1998. Carpets are being displayed in six rooms of the house. The other two rooms contain belongings of the khan’s family. The fact that Azerbaijan’s second carpet museum was opened in Nakhchivan is very interesting. As in other parts of Azerbaijan, a group of people toured every village in Nakhchivan in the 1990s and bought valuable handicrafts, including carpets, at giveaway prices.
Those carpets were seized at the border while being smuggled out of the country. All of the seized carpets have been submitted to the museum. Looking at the carpets in the museum, you can trace the evolution of carpet weaving. The history of this old art dates back to the ancient Shumers 3,000 to 5,000 years ago. Simple woolen covers evolved into today’s carpets over time. There are nearly 250 very beautiful and rare carpets in the museum.