# Juma Mosque, Sheki > The Juma Mosque (Cümə məscidi) is Sheki's main Friday mosque, built in 1900–1914, with a free-standing 28.5 m brick minaret. It is a working mosque: entry is **free**, and **20 minutes** covers the courtyard and prayer hall. There are no official hours — come in daytime between prayers, and avoid Friday around midday. It sits in the lower town, a 20–25 minute walk downhill from the fortress. Web page: https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/sheki-juma-mosque - City: [Sheki](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki), Azerbaijan - YesGo score: 43/100 (Yes, if nearby) - Time on site: 20 min - Opening hours: No official hours; daytime between prayers (unofficial); Friday midday prayer is the busiest time - With kids: Fine with kids - Entry: Free, no ticket; donations welcome - When to visit: Daytime between prayers; avoid Friday around midday - Dress code: Shoulders and knees covered, headscarf for women; shoes off in the prayer hall - Address: 39 20 Yanvar Street, at the lower end of Akhundov Avenue, Dabbagkhana quarter - From the fortress gate: ≈ 1.7 km downhill, 20–25 min on foot; taxi about 5 min - From the bus station: ≈ 1.4 km, about 20 min on foot or 5 min by taxi - Payment: Visa and Mastercard work in Baku, but in Sheki carry manat cash for taxis and donations - Coordinates: 41.20250, 47.18122 - Facts checked: 02.11.2026 ## Key facts - **1900–1914** — built in these years; a stone inscription dates the porch, a cell and the minaret to 1914 (source: English and Russian Wikipedia; Wikidata (1914)) - **28.5 m** — the minaret, rebuilt from an archive photograph and finished in 1991 (source: English and Russian Wikipedia; Lonely Planet (≈ 28 m)) - **2019** — the mosque lies within the UNESCO site “Historic Centre of Sheki with the Khan’s Palace” (source: English and Russian Wikipedia) - **Sports school** — in Soviet times: the minaret was pulled down and the inner balcony removed for a gym (source: English and Russian Wikipedia) - **1988** — the building burned; restoration began in 1989 (source: English and Russian Wikipedia) - **1993** — the Sheki Islamic Madrasa opened at the mosque (source: English and Russian Wikipedia) - **2 floors** — men pray downstairs, women in the upper hall (source: English and Russian Wikipedia) - **Stone and brick** — local limestone and fired brick, with brick patterns on the main façade (source: English and Russian Wikipedia; Monkey's Tale travel blog) - **Old bathhouse** — an underground bath next door belongs to the same complex (source: English and Russian Wikipedia; OpenStreetMap; Monkey's Tale travel blog) - **≈ 1.3 km** — in a straight line west of the fortress gate, in the lower town (source: Wikidata and OpenStreetMap coordinates, YesGo calculation) > **Dress code: what to wear** This is a working mosque, not a museum. Men need long trousers, not shorts, and no vests. Women should cover their hair and wear something that covers shoulders and knees — a long skirt or loose trousers. Shoes come off at the prayer hall door. During prayers, don’t walk in front of worshippers or take photos of them. ## Can tourists go inside the Juma Mosque? Yes. Non-Muslim visitors are welcome, and there is no ticket, no booking and no guide needed. This is unofficial — the mosque publishes no visitor hours or rules. The easiest time is the early afternoon on a weekday, between the midday and afternoon prayers. On Friday around midday the whole neighbourhood comes for the main prayer of the week, and that is not the moment to look around. The courtyard and the base of the minaret are open whenever the gate is. Take your shoes off before the prayer hall, and women should already have a scarf on. The upstairs women’s hall and the madrasa rooms around the courtyard are in daily use, so don’t wander in uninvited. The minaret cannot be climbed. If the gate is shut, a prayer is under way or nobody is in. Wait 20–30 minutes or come back later. ## Is it worth it? Worth it if you are walking down from the [Khan’s Palace](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/sheki-khans-palace) anyway, or staying in the lower town. It is free, takes 20 minutes, and it is the one place in Sheki where you see everyday religious life rather than a museum — a mosque with a madrasa and an old bathhouse, still used as intended. Don’t come expecting the painted interiors of the palace. The building is plain brick and limestone, and much of the inside was rebuilt after Soviet use and a fire. The reason to come is the tall brick minaret, the courtyard, and the story of a mosque that was a gym for decades. If you only have half a day in Sheki and dislike long walks, skip it: it is the farthest of the main sights from the fortress. ## How old is the Juma Mosque in Sheki? Just over a century. English and Russian Wikipedia both date it to 1900–1914, and a stone inscription marks 1914, when the porch, a cell and the minaret were finished. The madrasa was added later and joined to the porch. Lonely Planet and some blogs call it 18th-century; we found nothing to back that date, and it seems to come from the town’s older Khan Mosque. After 1928, during the Soviet campaign against religion, the mosque was shut. The minaret was demolished, the building became a sports school, and the inner balcony of the prayer hall was taken out to make room for a gym. In 1988 it burned. Restoration began in 1989. Digging uncovered the inner porch wall, which was rebuilt; blocked windows were reopened, four columns put back and the mihrab restored. The minaret was rebuilt to its old height from an archive photograph and finished in 1991. Since 2019 the mosque has been inside the UNESCO World Heritage site “Historic Centre of Sheki with the Khan’s Palace”. ## What to see - **The minaret** — round, brick, 28.5 m, standing on its own a few metres from the mosque, with a metal tulip-shaped tip. - **The main façade** — brick patterns set into limestone and two rows of arched lattice windows. - **The mihrab** — the prayer niche facing Mecca, restored in the late 1980s. - **The wooden minbar** — a ten-step pulpit with carved lattice decoration. - **Four columns** in the prayer hall, put back during the same restoration. - **The courtyard and madrasa** — cells round the yard that now serve as classrooms. - **The old underground bathhouse** next door — part of the same complex; see it from outside, as it is unofficially closed to visitors. ## How to get to the Juma Mosque 1. From Baku, take an intercity bus or minibus from **Baku International Bus Terminal** to **Sheki bus station** — about 5 hours. 2. From Sheki bus station the mosque is about 1.4 km: a 5-minute taxi, or a 20-minute walk north along **Rasulzade Avenue** and **Akhundov Street**. Ask for “Cümə məscidi”. 3. If you are at the top, by the gate of **Sheki Fortress** and the Khan’s Palace, walk downhill along **M. F. Akhundov Avenue**. 4. After about 10 minutes you pass the [Upper Caravanserai](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/sheki-caravanserai), then the Lower Caravanserai a little further down. 5. Keep going down the avenue almost to its lower end at **20 Yanvar Street** — about 1.7 km and 20–25 minutes from the fortress in total. 6. Look for the tall round brick minaret above the rooftops; the mosque entrance is right beside it. 7. Take a taxi back up — about 5 minutes; the climb to the fortress is long. ## Juma Mosque vs the caravanserai and the Khan’s Palace | | Juma Mosque | Upper Caravanserai | Khan’s Palace | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | What it is | Working mosque with a madrasa | Hotel in an old Silk Road inn | Museum, the khans’ summer palace | | Where | Lower town, 20 Yanvar Street | Middle of Akhundov Avenue | Top of town, inside the fortress | | Entry | Free | Courtyard free by day | Ticket | | From the fortress gate | ≈ 20–25 min downhill | ≈ 10 min downhill | Inside the walls | | Time needed | ≈ 20 min | ≈ 30 min | 30–45 min | The mosque is the farthest from the fortress, so put it at the end of a top-to-bottom walk: palace, caravanserai, mosque — then a taxi back. ## Before you go: checklist - [ ] Not going on Friday around midday or during a prayer - [ ] Shoulders and knees covered; a scarf for women - [ ] Clean socks — shoes come off in the prayer hall - [ ] A little manat cash for a donation and the taxi - [ ] Walking down from the fortress, taxi back up ## Mosques and holy places in Sheki compared Every place of worship in Sheki that YesGo has rated. - [Gilahli Mosque Minaret](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/sheki-gilahli-minaret) — YesGo score 44/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 15 min · Free, viewed from outside - [Juma Mosque](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/sheki-juma-mosque) — YesGo score 43/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 20 min · Free - [Round Temple](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/sheki-round-temple) — YesGo score 40/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 30 min · Free outside; museum fee not published - [Church of Kish](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/kish-church) — YesGo score 33/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 1 h · 15 AZN for foreign visitors ## Sheki top to bottom: palace to mosque The Khan’s Palace and fortress walls at the top, down the main street past the caravanserai, and the Juma Mosque at the end. 1. [Palace of the Shaki Khans](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/sheki-khans-palace) — YesGo score 41/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 45 min · 15 AZN for foreigners (unofficial) 2. [Sheki Fortress](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/sheki-fortress) — YesGo score 44/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 40 min · Free; museums inside extra 3. [Upper Caravanserai](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/sheki-caravanserai) — YesGo score 44/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 30 min · Courtyard free (unofficial) 4. [Juma Mosque](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/sheki-juma-mosque) — YesGo score 43/100 (Yes, if nearby) · 20 min · Free > **Photographing the minaret** The minaret stands apart from the building, so the whole tower fits in the frame from the far corner of the courtyard. The lattice-window façade is best lit in daytime. Ask before photographing people at the door or on the benches. ## Don’t confuse it with This is not the Juma Mosque in Shamakhi, often described as one of the oldest in the Caucasus, nor the Juma mosques of Baku, Ganja, Ordubad or Derbent. Sheki itself also has the Khan Mosque, a different building now used as an exhibition hall, and the separate old [Gilahli Minaret](https://yesgo.io/azerbaijan/sheki/sheki-gilahli-minaret) in the upper town. Some guides give the Juma Mosque the Khan Mosque’s 18th-century date — that is a mix-up. ## Tips - Make the mosque the last stop: walking down from the Khan’s Palace along Akhundov Avenue is easy, walking back up is not. - Friday around midday the mosque is full — come another day or later in the afternoon. - Bring a scarf from your hotel; there may be none spare at the door. - If a madrasa class is on, stay out of the classrooms — the courtyard and prayer hall show you everything that matters. - Staying in the lower town or arriving by bus? Visit the mosque first, then take a taxi up to the fortress and walk the rest downhill. ## Questions ### Can non-Muslims visit the Juma Mosque in Sheki? Yes. Entry is free and there is no ticket. Come between prayers, dressed modestly, with a headscarf for women. This is unofficial — the mosque publishes no visitor rules. ### Is there a dress code? Yes. Long trousers for men; for women a headscarf and clothes covering shoulders and knees. Shoes come off at the prayer hall door. ### Is the Juma Mosque free? Yes, there is no ticket. A small donation in manat is welcome but not required. ### What are the opening hours? There are no official visitor hours. Daytime between prayers is safest; avoid Friday around midday, when the main weekly prayer takes place. ### How old is the Juma Mosque? It was built in 1900–1914, and the minaret was rebuilt by 1991. Some guides say 18th century, but that appears to be a mix-up with Sheki’s Khan Mosque. ### How tall is the minaret, and can you climb it? It is 28.5 m tall. Visitors cannot go up; you see it from the courtyard. ### How do I get to the Juma Mosque from the Khan’s Palace? Walk downhill along Akhundov Avenue past the caravanserais — about 1.7 km, 20–25 minutes. A taxi back up takes about 5 minutes. ### How long do I need? About 20 minutes for the courtyard, minaret and prayer hall; around an hour including the walk from the fortress. ### Is the mosque part of the UNESCO site? According to English and Russian Wikipedia, yes — it lies within the World Heritage site “Historic Centre of Sheki with the Khan’s Palace”, inscribed in 2019. ## How we checked The mosque has no website and publishes no visitor hours, so free entry, visiting times and the dress code are unofficial, based on general practice in Azerbaijani mosques, and marked as checking. Dating is disputed: English and Russian Wikipedia and Wikidata give 1900–1914, Lonely Planet and some blogs the 18th century, and Advantour gives 1745–1750 to a “Juma (Khan) Mosque” of which only the minaret survives — a different building. We show 1900–1914 and the dispute. UNESCO inclusion follows both Wikipedias; we did not open a UNESCO document listing the mosque by name. Wikidata and OpenStreetMap agree on the coordinates, about 1.3 km west of the fortress; distances and walking times come from an OpenStreetMap route. We left out the live prayer-times widget because it runs on Istanbul time. ## Sources - English Wikipedia: “Juma Mosque in Sheki” - Russian Wikipedia: “Джума-мечеть (Шеки)”; Wikidata Q19642597 - Lonely Planet — “Cümə Mosque”, Şəki: minaret and dating - Monkey's Tale travel blog — “Discover the mountain city of Sheki”, on the mosque and the bathhouse next door - Advantour — Sheki tour page (Russian): the Khan (Juma) Mosque and its minaret - iTicket.AZ — venue “Sheki Khan Mosque Exhibition Hall” - OpenStreetMap — coordinates of the mosque, madrasa, bathhouse, fortress and bus station; walking route --- This is the Markdown version of a YesGo page for AI assistants. Quote the web page link above, not this file.