Things to Do in Sheki: 9 Must-Sees, from the Khan’s Palace to Kish Church

Sheki’s Sights at a Glance

1. The Khan’s Palace

The reason most people come. The 18th-century summer palace of the Sheki khans is small — two floors, a handful of rooms — but every surface is decorated: painted walls with hunting and battle scenes, and the famous shebeke windows, lattices of carved wood and coloured glass fitted together without nails or glue. In the morning sun the rooms fill with coloured light. The palace stands inside the old fortress walls at the top of town, among plane trees.

Photography is not allowed inside. At the start of 2026 the ticket for foreign visitors was about 15; check on arrival, as prices and opening hours change. Come early in the day — tour groups from Baku usually arrive around midday.

2. A Walk Through the Historic Centre

The UNESCO listing covers the whole old town, not just the palace. Walk down from the fortress through streets of houses with steep gabled roofs — the big attics were built for raising silkworms — and stone channels that still carry mountain water through the gardens. It is the easiest thing to do in Sheki and costs nothing.

3. The Caravanserai

Sheki was a trading stop on the Silk Road, and its two big stone caravanserais date from around the turn of the 18th century. One still works as a hotel: you can walk into the arcaded courtyard and have tea, or stay the night in a room with a vaulted brick ceiling — not luxurious, but memorable.

4. Shekikhanovs’ House

A second, late-18th-century residence built for relatives of the khans, decorated by a different artist: wall paintings, carved wooden doors and more shebeke glass. It sees far fewer visitors than the palace, which makes it a calm second stop. Entry is a small separate fee.

5. Shebeke Workshops

Near the palace, craftsmen still make shebeke by hand, fitting hundreds of small wooden pieces and glass panes together. Watching them work for a few minutes explains the palace windows better than any sign — and a small shebeke panel is the most authentic souvenir you can take home from Sheki.

6. The Church of Kish

About 5 km up the valley in the village of Kish stands a small stone church linked to Caucasian Albania. The building itself probably dates from around the 12th century, but excavations beneath the altar found a place of worship dated to roughly 3000 BC. Restored in the early 2000s, it is now open to visitors as a museum. At the start of 2026 the ticket for foreign visitors was about 15.

7. Gelersen-Gorersen Fortress

On a forested hill about 4 km from town are the ruins of an 8th–9th-century fortress whose name means “come and see”. It is famous for holding out against Nader Shah’s army in 1744. Reaching it means a walk of around half an hour uphill on a dirt track, so wear proper shoes; the reward is the view over the Kish valley.

8. Bio Garden

In the village of Oryat, about 15–20 minutes’ drive from the centre, Bio Garden is an agritourism farm that has been open to visitors since 2018. Its orchards are grown organically — citrus, kiwi, cherries and berries among them — and on a guided walk you can pick fruit and eat it on the spot (it can’t be taken away). There are also pheasants, swans and other birds, rabbits, a fish pond and beehives, which makes it the easiest stop in Sheki for children.

Allow one to two hours; there is an entrance fee. The restaurant and tea house, cooking with the farm’s own produce, open in the summer season — outside it, call ahead before you go.

9. Piti and Sheki Halva

Sheki’s signature dish is piti: lamb, chickpeas and chestnuts slow-cooked with saffron in an individual clay pot. There is a ritual to eating it — the broth first, with bread torn into it, then the rest — and restaurants are happy to show you. For dessert, Sheki halva is nothing like the halva you may know: a lattice of rice-flour threads filled with nuts and soaked in syrup, sold by the tray in old-town sweet shops.

How to Plan Your Days in Sheki

• Why not a day trip. It is possible, but with about ten hours in the car there and back you would see the palace and little else. Sheki deserves at least one night.
• Two days (our recommendation). Day one: leave Baku in the morning, stop in Shamakhi on the way, arrive in Sheki in the afternoon, walk the old town and have dinner at the caravanserai. Day two: the Khan’s Palace when it opens, Shekikhanovs’ House, then Kish and the fortress walk before the drive back.
• Travelling with children. Add Bio Garden to day two — picking fruit and seeing the animals makes a welcome break between palaces and museums.
• Three days with Gabala. Gabala is roughly 1.5–2 hours from Sheki, so the two combine into a natural loop: Baku → Gabala (Tufandag, Nohur Lake) → Sheki → Baku.

Planning the Gabala part too? See things to do in Gabala.

Getting to Sheki

Buses run from Baku, but the trip is long and the sights outside town (Kish, the fortress) are much easier with a car. With a private transfer the same driver can take you around while you are there. Our fixed prices, per car:

If you stay overnight, choose in the booking form whether the driver stays with you (each night adds a driver day) or you book two separate transfers. For a multi-day loop through Gabala and Sheki, see private driver hire.

Updated: October 2026