Sumgait
Azerbaijan · Asia
About Sumgait
Sumgait, officially Sumqayit;; is a city in Azerbaijan, located near the Caspian Sea, on the Absheron Peninsula, about 31 kilometres (19 miles) away from the capital Baku. The city had a population of 427,000 at the beginning of 2024, making it the second largest city in Azerbaijan after Baku.
The city has a territory of 83 square kilometres (32 sq mi). It was founded as a suburb of Baku in 1944 and received city status on 22 November 1949, growing into a major industrial center during the Soviet period. The municipality of Sumgait also includes the settlements of Jorat and Haji Zeynalabdin. It is home to Sumqayit State University.
The city is best known internationally for where the Sumgait pogrom took place in 1988, in which local Armenian populations were killed or forced to relocate due to threats of violence.
The name of the city comes from the name of the Mongol tribe Sugaut (Sagait).
According to local folklore, the city is named after the Sumgait River. One folk legend tells the tale of a hero by the name of "Sum", who is chosen by the community to fight a monster that was blocking the Sumgait River. Sum eventually...
Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.