Shaki () is a city in northwestern Azerbaijan, surrounded by the district of the same name. It is located on the southern part of the Greater Caucasus mountain range, from Baku. As of 2020, it has a population of 68,400. The center of the city and the Palace of Shaki Khans were inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019 because of its unique architecture and its history as an important trading center along the Silk Road. Etymology According to the Azerbaijani historians, the name of the town goes back to the ethnonym of the Sakas, who reached the territory of modern-day Azerbaijan in the 7th century B.C. and populated it for several centuries. In the medieval sources, the name of the town is found in various forms such as Sheke, Sheki, Shaka, Shakki, Shakne, Shaken, Shakkan, Shekin. The city was known as Nukha (; ) until 1968. History Antiquity There are traces of large-scale settlements in Shaki dating back to more than 2700 years ago. The Sakas were an Iranian people that wandered from the north side of the Black Sea through Derbend passage and to the South Caucasus and from there to Asia Minor in the 7th century B.C. They occupied a good deal of the fertile lands in South Caucasus in an area called Sakasena. The city of Shaki was one of the areas occupied by the Sakas. The original settlement dates back to the late Bronze Age. Shaki was founded in the 8th century B.C. Shaki was one of the biggest cities of the Caucasian Albanian states in the 1st century. The kingdom of Shaki was divided into 11 administrative provinces. The main temple of the ancient Albanians was located there. The Albanians adopted Christianity early from the Armenians, and Armenian cultural and religious influence became strong in Shaki. As a result of archaeological excavations conducted in 1902 in the village of Boyuk-Dakhna in the Shaki region, various ceramic products and a stone tombstone dating back to the 2nd century AD and containing inscriptions in Greek were discovered. Shaki was one of the important political and economic cities before the Arab invasion. But as a result of the invasion in 654, Shaki was annexed to the third emirate of Arminiya. At the turn of the 9th century, when the Arab caliphate was weak, Shaki joined with Cambysene and was ruled by the Armenian Smbatean princes