Wikimedia CEE Hub/Microgrants/report/Registration of monuments located in the historical center of the city of Sheki

Status: Approved report

Registration of monuments located in the historical center of the city of Sheki

By: Rəcəb Yaxşı

The goal of the project was to take photographs of historical monuments located in the center of Sheki, which is included in the UNESCO World Heritage list, and about which there is no information on Wikipedia, as well as to create articles about them and translate them into various languages. Together with our team, we achieved even more than we had initially planned. In total, we took over 1,000 photographs of more than 58 historical monuments and wrote articles about those monuments, about which there was no information, and translated them into different languages.

full report...

Preparation phase:

Before departing for Sheki, we conducted research on historical buildings that had little or no information available. We compiled a list of these buildings.
We identified the museums and neighbourhoods we would visit.
We determined the books written about Sheki’s history and its architectural monuments, and acquired some of them. We finished reading the first four books before the trip and took notes.

Leaving for Sheki

We bought train tickets and made a hotel reservation in advance to travel to Sheki.
Sheki is located 352 km from Baku. To make the most of our day, we took the night train to Sheki. By the morning, we had already arrived in Sheki. From the railway station, we took a taxi to the city center. After arriving at the hotel and having breakfast, we started our activities.

Fieldwork

For the next three days, we visited different neighborhoods of the city each day and took photographs of historical monuments. In addition to capturing the general facades of the buildings, we also photographed their doors, the taggulbabs (door knockers) on the doors, as well as the interior features such as the bukharis, shebeke windows, and wall patterns.

On the fourth day, as our work in the city was complete, we traveled to the surrounding villages and took photographs of some churches and mosques there. Since these photographs are not related to the Yukhari Bash Reserve, we will upload them to Commons as part of the "Wiki Love Monuments" project in September.

Post-fieldwork

After returning to Baku, we sorted the photographs we had taken. In total, we captured over 1,000 photos of 58 historical monuments. Of these, 557 photos were uploaded to Commons. (As mentioned earlier, some of them will be uploaded in September.)

Since there was no information available about some of the monuments we uploaded, we created 49 separate Commons categories for them. We also organized many photos previously uploaded to Commons into the appropriate categories. Examples of the created categories include:

We also created separate categories for architectural elements found in historical monuments. Since this task requires more extensive research, we will continue it in the coming months. Examples of the created categories include:

Later, we finished reading the books we had obtained on Sheki’s history and architecture and started writing articles about the historical monuments on Wikipedia. In total, 13 articles were created on AzWiki. Several articles were also edited. The prepared articles were translated into English, Russian, and Turkish. We received help from 2 translators and 3 editors for this work. In total, 38 articles were created, including those in foreign languages. Examples of the articles include:

Since there was also limited information about the monuments on Wikidata, we made hundreds of edits there as well. We created 39 new Wikidata entries about the monuments and linked them to other projects.

Additional part of the report (Lessons learned)

Lessons learned

Some of the historical buildings in the city center have not yet been granted the status of a historical monument by the government. We have gathered information about these buildings and plan to appeal to government agencies in the future to request that they be recognized as monuments.

Due to our visit coinciding with public holidays, some of the historical museums were not operational. As a result, we were unable to conduct shoots in the homes of Mirza Fatali Akhundov and Rashid bey Afendiyev.

One of our objectives was to take photographs of the interiors of historical houses and document the architectural elements there. However, as some of the residents were absent and some buildings were uninhabited, we mainly managed to photograph the facades and doors of the historical houses.

Overall, we gathered a wealth of information about the history of Sheki. We read more than 10 books and will continue to write articles about Sheki and research the city's history in the future.

Financial report

Financial report for your project
Type of expense	Description	Amount (EUR)
Transport	Train tickets, public transportation, and taxi expenses	186
Accommodation	4 nights for 2 people	260
Tickets	Museum entry fees	12
Food and beverages	Food expenses (4 days for 2 people)	180
Total		638.00

Achieved metrics

We managed to achieve all our target metrics. Main results in the following table:

Achieved Metrics
Metric	Target	Result
Number of participants	2	5
Number of photos taken	1000	1012
Number of photos uploaded to Commons		557
Number of monuments to be photographed	16	58
Categories created on Commons		49
Elements created on Wikidata		31
Number of articles created and translated on Wikipedia		38