Terme Şirvan Spa

Terme Sirvan Spa draws bicarbonated mineral springs in the Shamakhi district of Azerbaijan's Shirvan region, a highland area east of the Greater Caucasus watershed where the mineral-rich waters emerging from the Jurassic limestone formations have been used for wellbeing and relaxation in a landscape of mulberry orchards, silk-weaving villages, and medieval caravanserai ruins that preserve the cultural memory of the ancient Silk Road route through the eastern Caucasus. Shamakhi was for centuries the capital of the Shirvan Khanate and one of the wealthiest cities of the medieval Islamic world, its bazaars trading silk, saffron, and Caspian caviar along routes that connected China to Venice, and the ruins of its ancient observatory, its Friday mosque, and its medieval towers still mark the hilltop above the modern town. The bicarbonated springs of the Shirvan region, valued for circulatory comfort and digestive wellbeing, flow within reach of Baku, Azerbaijan's extraordinary capital whose UNESCO-listed walled inner city of Icheri Sheher, the Maiden Tower, and the Palace of the Shirvanshahs stand surrounded by the glass towers of the oil-boom city that the Caspian petroleum industry built in the twentieth century.