Shamkir Castle is located in the north side of Mukhtariyye village of the same named region, on a shore of Shamkir River, in 600 ms to the south from the railway. The height of the remainders of the walls, especially the west and south walls is up to 4 ms in some places. The place of the city gates is clearly observed in these walls. The walls have been constructed from river stone, burnt brick and local white stone. There is a remaining of multi-span bridge in the Shamkir River-bed which was directed towards the Shehristan. The remainders of ruins of an inner castle (Naringala) settled on the shore of the Shamkir River with a territory more than one hectare had had a better defense system consisted of strong walls and a ditch. The castle walls have been raised with burnt brick, river stones and local white and blue stones using lime solution, what is typical for Arran architecture school. Remainders of the buildings constructed with brick can be seen in the inside of Naringala. Shehristan’s territory is regularly used for sowing; therefore its micro-relief has been destructed here. There are architecture parts and materials of ground-based buildings on its territory. It could be said that river stone, white stone and burnt brick had been widely used in the city architecture. There are remaining of production on the Shehrist’s territory, such as pottery and blacksmith profession. The excavation of 16 sq.m area in Shehristan showed 2.2 ms thick civilized layer in this part of the monument. The results of Naringala archaeological excavations were also interesting. 80 ms of Naringala’s east wall had been cleaned from land heaps and studied in the III excavation area. Investigations in the IV excavation area revealed two civilized layers inside of Naringala. 4 ms thick civilized layer related to IX-XIII centuries had been revealed under the civilized layer related to XVIII-XIX century. Remainders of fortification, farm buildings, oven and fire places, wells related to a farm and life, a construction built of burnt brick, a drainage line were found in this civilized layer. Iron labor tools and weapon examples, building materials and home things, glazed and without a glaze faience plate examples, metal and glass products, ornament things, coins have been found from the Middle Age layer.

Veli Bakhishaliyev Azerbaijan archeology