PALACE OF KHAN HUSSEIN ALEYHAN
Splendid wooden building with a khan's bedroom, a reception room and a room serving as the khan's office on the 1st floor
One of Azerbaijan's jewels, this splendid wooden building was built in the 1743 th century by the second khan of Sheki Kingdom, after the rebellion of the inhabitants of the city against the Iranian army in. Wooden sliding windows of hazelnut and fishing are one of the most remarkable architectural elements in the building: This technique, called shebeke, consists of making decorative motifs with wooden crosspieces, built without nails or glue. This technique, which was forgotten for a very long time, was rehabilitated in the 1950 s for the restoration of the building. It is once again very popular among the rich Azerbaijanis in the Sheki region, using them to decorate their homes. The quality criterion for these works lies in the quantity of wood elements: the palace windows have up to 14 000 wooden elements per square metre!
The ceiling of the ground floor reception room has 54 000 pieces of wood. No nail was used for this impressive book which used the best craft techniques of the time. The colours are drawn from natural pigments. Windows of windows were originally imported from Italy, traded against spices and silk of the time of merchant caravans. They have since been replaced by local windows.
The first floor consists of the Khan's bedroom (although Shi'a Muslim, the khan was monogamous, which explains that the palace only has one bedroom), a reception room and a play office office. The walls and ceilings are painted entirely. A long 2 m long frise, which runs all around the main room, represents the war of Independence that pitted Sheki's inhabitants to Iranian troops. In the khan's office, the grenadiers draw the favourite fruits of the ruler. Between the two trees, a lion kills a deer, symbolizing the triumph of the strongest on the weakest. Above the two animals, a dragon represents the lion, whose words are like flowers. At the ceiling, four medallions set up a lion holding a fish between his legs, while a woman arrives on her back and steals her crown. The message is clear: the episode must not allow easy pleasures, such as the taste of women and luxury, to lose power.