Trip to Ismayilli region

Last Saturday and Sunday I was traveling to the Ismayilli region together with the Neste-Jacobs team, which has recently been working in Azerbaijan. It was my second visit to this region, so I knew that there are a lot of gorgeous sceneries to photograph and that was my main reason to go.
First of all, I made the mistake and did not dress myself properly - it was very cold. And second - if you want to photograph you should not go with a bus full of people, but by a car, so that it is possible to stop wherever you want. So, I gave up my intention of being a photographer and just enjoyed the company and some sceneries from a window of the bus.

Lahic

There is a legend about a town called La. One day, there was a powerful  earthquake and La disappeared from the Earth. It became nothing - "hec" in Azerbaijani means nothing, and so this place was called La-hec. 
Today’s Lahij is a mountain village, 1,629 m above sea level with some 2,000 inhabitants.
People here still are speaking a dialect of old Persian, which is the primary language in Lahij. They have no alphabet for the language - it is only spoken.
Lahij is the village of copper-smiths and carpet-makers - men working with copper and women weaving carpets. There are several workshops on the main street of the village where the masters are selling their handcraft goods.
Just one road goes to Lahij and it ends in the village. It is a real excitement to go on this road, sometimes a bit scary, especially if you are afraid of heights. 
Beneath the village, there was a bridge across the river, built during the Soviet times. This was meant to be the beginning of a new route. Not a long time ago, this bridge was replaced by another new bridge, which still leads nowhere. However the people of Lahij are optimistic that one day there will be a new road.

Bridge from Lahij to nowhere

the view from Lahij

Château Monolit Chabiant Winery

Here are some photos from our visit to Monolit Winemaking Guesthouse. The vineyard is located in the scenic Ismayilli region, right at the southern slopes of the Great Caucasus at an altitude of 750 m.